


In The Clear

by found_the_good_things



Category: We Are The Tigers - Allen
Genre: Also Kate and Eva are disaster lesbians, And I feel like Annleigh is a lil homophobic in the show and I want Annleigh growth, And I feel like every fic glosses over Eva canonically being the Titans' team captain, And Reese absolutely helped them get together, And also Kate and Eva don't even realize that they're basically a couple, And it's killing Cairo even though she has negative feelings for Kate, Clark Chess and Farrah are mentioned, F/F, Mainly Kate and Eva but a little bit of platonic team bonding, Maybe some flashbacks at some point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 29,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24502570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/found_the_good_things/pseuds/found_the_good_things
Summary: In the wake of the second sleepover, all of the survivors are figuring out how to come to terms with everything that happened - and Kate and Eva are figuring out how to come to terms with their feelings for each other. Takes place between The Breakdown and Finale, and I'm thinking about adding a chapter or two after Finale. The title is from Shut Up and Cheer
Relationships: Kate/Eva Sanchez (We Are The Tigers)
Comments: 105
Kudos: 74





	1. Chapter One

_ I should’ve stayed at West High. _

_ Why didn’t I stay at West High? _

I _ wouldn’t have  _ stabbed _ anybody. _

But Eva didn’t stay at West High. She transferred to Giles Corey and her new team captain, Riley, had just fucking stabbed Kate.

Kate was sitting on the coffee table, staring at her leg and swearing, while Eva pressed a rag to her wound. “Kate, you’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna be okay.” She was the only one at Kate’s side, because everyone else was too busy tying up Riley. Which, yeah, was important, to be fair, but Kate was about to  _ bleed out oh my God. _

Kate laughed dryly, but then cut herself off with a sob. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Eva.”

“Look, we’ll get an ambulance, okay? You’ll be fine.”

“God, it hurts.”

“SHE HAS A LANDLINE!” Annleigh screamed from the doorway. “YOU HAD A LANDLINE THIS WHOLE TIME!”

“Did you call the police?” Eva demanded.

“Oh! Right.” Annleigh turned away, dialing 911.

Just as Riley woke up and claimed that the cops would listen to her, the stars must have been in Eva’s favor, because that was the  _ perfect _ time to say:

“Actually, I’m really hoping they do.” She played the recording she’d taken of Riley’s confession.

“Delete that.”

“But I thought you loved going viral?”

Annleigh and Reese helped Kate up the stairs, and Eva quickly followed, grabbing her bag as she went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate leaned her head back, squeezing her eyes shut. All around her, paramedics were yelling for a stretcher, were yelling for this and that and  _ God please just shut up and let me think _ . Next to her, Reese was rubbing her shoulders and repeating some bullshit about everything being okay.

_ Nothing’s going to be okay. Farrah and Chess are dead and Riley killed them. _

Riley. Cheerful, bubbly, team captain Riley had killed Kate’s best friend.

And Reese, the same kind-hearted girl that was reassuring Kate, had killed Clark. Clark hadn’t done anything wrong! Well, yeah, he had snuck into an all-girls cheerleader sleepover to propose to his girlfriend, but he was sweet and selfless and kind and Reese had killed him.

“Stop touching me,” she said through gritted teeth, and thank God, Reese took her hand off her arm and stopped touching her.

She was so woozy from the blood loss that she could barely think, and her leg felt like it was on fire, like it was exploding - or imploding, Chess would point out. Was this what Chess’s last moments felt like? Was this kind of awful pain the last thing she felt as she bled out on the bench after Kate just  _ left _ her there?

Chess had died, and Kate could have stopped it. If only she’d stayed, if only she’d tried to talk about it with Chess instead of storming off, Chess would be asking if she could hear her instead of Eva.

“I’m not having a panic attack, Eva,” she muttered. “I got fucking stabbed and I’m freaking out.”  
Someone scoffed. “Yeah, she’s fine if she can still argue.”

“Shut the fuck up, Cairo,” Eva snapped. Kate had defended Chess the same way the night of the first sleepover.

And Chess died.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wooooow this chapter is way longer than the last one... actual Kate and Eva bonding this time

Eva wasn’t sure which numbers were which in the cheerleaders’ group chat Riley had added her to, but she was pretty sure the one saying  _ doc says im gonna be fine. not gonna lose a leg or whatever _ was probably Kate.

“Eva, honey, are you awake?” Her mom tapped lightly on the door. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah.” Eva put her phone down and sat up as the door opened. She stared at her hands, unable to meet her mother’s eyes, and realized she still had some of Kate’s blood stuck under her fingernails.

“How are you doing?”

Eva shrugged.

“Can you tell me what happened last night?”

“Well, Riley stabbed Kate in the leg,” she said tonelessly.

Her mother covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, my God! You didn’t tell me someone got  _ stabbed _ !”

“She texted the group chat ten minutes ago. Said that she’ll be fine.”

“She was  _ stabbed _ ?”

“That’s what I said.” Eva picked at the dried blood, but quickly gave up, knowing she’d have to scrape it out later with a letter opener or something. “She’s okay, though. Or she will be. And Riley’s going to be tried for murder and attempted murder and found guilty.”

“Who got stabbed again?”

“Kate.”

“You should visit her in the hospital.”

“What? No, she wouldn’t want to see me.” Eva shook her head. “Why would she? She knew me for about a half hour and then was stabbed in the leg.”

“It’d be nice for her to see someone friendly.”

Eva scoffed. “We talked twice. The second time I was pressing a rag to her ripped-open leg while she bled out on the coffee table.” Well, that was what she wanted to say, but if she had, her mom might have had a heart attack. So instead, she said, “Yeah. Maybe.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hi, I’m here to see Kate, um…” Suddenly she realized she didn’t even know Kate’s last name. “Um. Kate.”

“We have two Kates,” said the receptionist in a bored voice. “Kate Dalton and Kate Chestfield.”

“Which one got stabbed in the leg?”

“That would be Kate Dalton. Room 310.”

“Thanks.”

Eva took a name tag and then continued down the hall, deciding to take the stairs instead of the elevator. If she was being honest, she was nervous about seeing Kate.

She knocked on the door hesitantly, waited for the bored “Come in,” and then entered, preparing herself for the worst.

The worst was not the reality.

She’d been worried about breathing tubes and throat tubes or whatever the hell was attached to patients on TV, but Kate just looked like Kate, sitting up on her own in bed, a thin blanket covering her lap and an IV in her arm.

“Eva! Hi,” she said as she registered who her visitor was.

“Uh, hey.” Eva scrambled for something to say. “You know, I didn’t know your last name when I got here and I asked for Kate and the receptionist said there were two Kates here.”

“So what did you do?”

“Asked which one got stabbed.”

Kate stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. “‘Which one got stabbed’,” she repeated, wiping tears from her eyes. “Jesus Christ.”

“Don’t let Annleigh catch you using the Lord’s name in vain.”

“Was Jesus the Lord?”

“I don’t know, I’m atheist.” Eva took the chair by the bedside. “How-”

“I just want to be clear that if you ask me how I’m feeling, I  _ will _ kick you out of this hospital room.” Kate rolled her eyes. “Two nurses, my mom, and a doctor have already asked me that and it’s barely noon.”

“Duly noted. Can I say that I’m sorry you got stabbed?” Eva managed a smile.

Kate considered it. “You know, I haven’t actually heard that one yet, so sure. How are  _ you _ ? I mean, you joined the cheer squad and immediately our captain revealed herself to be a murderer. Also you watched Annleigh practically kill Reese.” Kate saw her hesitant look. “Don’t be afraid to say we’re all batshit insane. I already knew that.”

“Yeah, I think you guys are insane,” Eva admitted. “But I think I’m already stuck on Giles Corey’s cheer team, so you haven’t exactly scared me off.”

“Well, that’s good.” Kate fidgeted with her blanket. “Look, I get that what happened yesterday was huge. I get that this whole fucking situation is insane and three people are dead and our team captain killed two of them, but can we please,  _ please _ talk about something other than that? Because nobody wants to discuss anything other than that with me and I’m fucking sick of it.”

Eva cracked a smile. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

“Uh… I don’t know.” Kate shrugged. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Probably blue.”

“Me, too. How about your favorite…”

“My turn,” Eva decided as Kate trailed off. “Favorite animal?”

They went back and forth like that for a while, talking about trivial things like siblings and favorite foods and whether cheeseburgers or hamburgers were better, and after just ten minutes, Eva felt like a weight had been lifted off of her chest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Goddamn, you drink coffee black?” Kate asked, shocked.

“Well, yeah. The whole point of drinking coffee is to drink  _ coffee _ , not milk or sugar.”

“But you  _ have _ to have milk or sugar to make it taste good!”

“Black coffee  _ does _ taste good!”

Kate pressed a hand to her chest dramatically. “And I was just starting to like you.”

“Only just now?”

“Well…” Kate stared down at her blanket, afraid to meet Eva’s eyes in case she accidentally admitted the truth, which was that she really liked Eva. Enough that it made her wary, because the last person she’d liked was straight, dead Chess.

And at the thought of Chess, she deflated.

“Kate, are you…” Eva trailed off, probably remembering Kate’s warning from earlier about kicking her out of the room.

“Yeah, just thinking about-” Kate cut herself off, worried about saying her name out loud.

“Chess?” Eva said it for her.

“Yeah.” Kate smiled sadly. “I think she would have really liked you. ‘Cept she had the common sense to drink coffee with milk.”

“Are you ever going to let that go?”

“Nope.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I should probably get home,” Eva said two hours later.

“Yeah, probably. Um, Eva, would you mind- will you come back tomorrow?” Kate asked quickly, her cheeks tinged a little bit pink.

“If you want me to.” Eva grinned at her, and Kate grinned back. Eva noticed how pretty her eyes were - they almost glittered in the sunlight streaming in through the giant window.

She stood up, then left, waving a little bit at Kate, who waved back. As soon as the door was shut behind her, she leaned against the wall and rubbed her eyes, cursing herself. Now was  _ not _ the time to flirt with Kate, even if she started it. Because Kate was dealing with the death of her best friend and the betrayal of someone she’d probably known forever and also was hospitalized because she’d been stabbed last night.

After she took a minute to compose herself, she took the stairs again and went out to her car, still scolding herself for flirting so much with Kate.

When she got home, she immediately regretted leaving, because while she’d been able to joke and laugh with Kate - in general, just behave like a human - all of her family members were walking on eggshells around her, like they were afraid she’d snap any minute and lose her mind. She wanted to scream that she was fine, that she wasn’t made of glass and they could all calm down, but that probably would have made everything worse and so she didn’t.


	3. Chapter Three

“Hey, Kate.” Reese closed the door but didn’t step forward. “What’s up?”

Kate shrugged. “I’m fucking sick of this hospital.”

“But you were only admitted last night.”

“I know.” Kate cocked an eyebrow. “Your point?”

“Hospitals really suck,” Reese agreed.

Kate gestured to the chair Eva had vacated twenty minutes previously. “You know you’re allowed to sit down, right?”

“Uh, okay.” Reese took the chair, her hands twisting nervously in her lap. “I’m sorry you got stabbed.”

“You know, I think adults are forgetting that, because you and Eva remain the only people who have actually acknowledged that one specific thing.” Kate shook her head. “All the adults just ask how I’m feeling in general.”

“Eva was here?”

“About twenty minutes ago. She was my first visitor.” Kate found it weirdly difficult to look to the side at Reese, considering she was sitting next to her hospital bed, so she just stared at the wall in front of her. “I’m kind of surprised that she came, but I appreciate it.”

“Was she wearing her pin?”

“No, she- wait, you heard that?” Fuuuck, Kate knew she was blushing.

“Why are you blushing?” Oh, Reese knew  _ exactly _ what she was talking about. “I just asked about a pin and you automatically assumed-”

“ _ Reese _ .”

“Oh, come on. I think she- wait, you called me Reese.”

“Um. That’s your name?” Kate raised her eyebrows.

“Normally you call me Reeses.” Reese smiled nervously. “Can you maybe stop calling me that?”

“Yeah, ‘course. Sorry.” Kate grinned. “Hey, can you pass me the hair tie on the table there?”

Reese turned to look at the table, then grabbed the one Kate had pointed to. “Here. So…”

“You want to talk about Riley.”

“Very much so, yes, can we do that please? My parents tried, but…”

“They weren’t there last night.”

“Or the first night.”

“Do they know about-” Kate thought for a moment about how to phrase the question. “About Clark?”

“No.” Reese sighed heavily. “I know I should tell them.”

“It was an accident, anyways. You didn’t mean to do it.”

“I know I should confess, though. Riley will probably bring it up during her trial, you know?” Reese shrugged. “Plus I feel really guilty. I don’t think Annleigh’s ever going to talk to me again. To be fair, I did kill her boyfriend.”

“Well, I think the punishment is more lax for accidental murder. Plus you can plead self-defense.”

“But he didn’t hurt anyone.”

“You  _ thought _ he was the murderer, and I’m pretty sure that counts as self-defense.” Kate furrowed her eyebrows, still staring at the wall. “I think.”

“Kate, if you could  _ not _ be doubtful and stop making me more nervous, that’d be great.” Reese lightly shoved her shoulder, and Kate laughed. “Ugh, I’m exhausted. I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

“Neither did I.” Kate sighed dramatically. “And the doctors won’t let me have  _ any _ coffee. Eva offered to sneak some in for me, but the nurse walked in right as she said that, so that’s a bust.”

“She offered to buy you coffee?”

“Reese, come on. It was a gesture of friendship.” Kate rolled her eyes. “She and I are friends, if we’re even that. Last night was complicated.”

“That’s true.” Reese winked. “Buuuuuuuuut-”

“ _ Reese for the love of God stop it. _ ” Kate clenched her jaw, trying not to explode. Eva was cute, gay, and pretty much just Kate’s type, but she also didn’t want to be dating so soon after Chess’s death. “Can we just… talk about something else?”

“Yeah, sure.” Reese took a deep breath, made a face, and then blurted, “I don’t want to go back to school. My parents are letting me take the week off, but I have to go back next Monday.”

“The second I can walk, Mom and Dad are definitely gonna send me back, but I don’t want to,” Kate agreed. “It was bad enough when Chess, Farrah, and Clark had- you know, and everyone thought Mattie did it, but now people are gonna know we framed her and it’s just gonna suck.”

“I’m honestly considering transferring, but I mean, there’s only one more semester. Is it really worth it?” Reese asked thoughtfully.

“I think I’m just gonna tough it out. For- for Chess, you know?” Kate swallowed hard, Chess’s name sticking in her throat. “Annleigh- she was right when she said I didn’t want her to go. I mean, I wouldn’t have  _ killed _ her over it, but… I always thought of her as being the only friend I needed, and I didn’t really know how fucked up that was until I was facing not having her anymore.” She saw Reese’s expression, connected the dots, and realized what she’d said. “Shit, I’m sorry-”

“It’s okay.” Reese shook her head a little, like she was clearing away a thought. “I just don’t really have any friends.”

Kate hesitated. As much as she wanted to be a real friend for Reese, it was hard to ignore that just last night, she’d admitted to killing Clark, and if she was being honest, Kate still needed time to process that. So while she knew what she should say - “we’re friends now” - she didn’t.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Eva, honey, what do you want for dinner?”

Eva jumped at her mother’s voice suddenly cutting through the music in her earbuds. “Mom, you scared me!”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” She paused in the doorway, and Eva winced.

“I don’t care. I’m- I’m sure it’ll be great!” she said, wanting to kick herself for how flat her attempted cheerfulness fell.

“How about we order something from Panda Express?” her mother asked carefully.

That actually made Eva brighten a bit. She was the only one in her family who actually liked Chinese food, and an offer like this only came once in a blue moon. “Can we get orange chicken? And maybe fried rice?”

“Of course, honey.” Eva’s mom turned to go.

“One more thing- I think I’m gonna go see Kate again tomorrow after work,” she said quickly.

“Have fun, then, honey.”

Last night, Riley could have stabbed Eva and killed her, and that horrible realization had made Eva try harder to connect with her mother, which was the only reason the next sentence out of her mouth was “Mom? Can I come with you to pick up dinner?”

Spoiler alert: she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reese needs friends :( someone befriend this poor bean


	4. Chapter Four

“Hey, love. How are you feeling?”

Kate grit her teeth and put on a fake smile for her mom. “Meh. I mean, my leg kind of stings a little bit, but it’s not as bad as it was last night.” She felt a tinge of guilt at her mom’s wince at the mention of last night. “I really am feeling better.”

“That’s good. Your brothers called earlier.” Kate’s mom took the lone chair at her bedside. “They can’t come visit you, since they only just got back after Christmas, but they’d like to talk to you.”

At this point, Kate was exhausted and just wanted to get some sleep, but she felt like she  _ had _ to talk to Jack and Derrick, so she reluctantly agreed.

“ _ Hey, Kate! What’s up? _ ”

“Literally nothing. I’m in the hospital.”

Her mom glared at her, so Kate tried again.

“Two of my friends came to visit today.”

“ _ That’s good. I wish I could fly down _ .” Derrick sighed dramatically, and a smile flickered across Kate’s lips. “ _ Should we do a Skype call? _ ”

Kate stopped breathing for a moment. She still hadn’t opened Skype since the night of the sleepover, because every time she did, she heard Chess’s voice in her head.

_ We’ll Skype all the time. _

_ It’ll be like I’m not even gone. _

_ You’re my best friend. Nothing’s gonna change that. I promise. _

“ _ Kate? _ ”

“I- yeah, sure.” She could handle it, especially if Jack or Derrick made the call first and she closed the app as soon as it was over.

As long as she didn’t look at Chess’s contact.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva locked her car and stuffed her keys into her pocket, wondering if she should talk to the receptionist or just go right up to Kate’s room. Luckily, she didn’t have to worry, because as she walked through the automatic doors, she heard someone call her name and turned around just as Annleigh caught up with her.

“Eva, hi! What’s up?” she asked, more cheerful than she should have been considering the circumstances.

“Just, you know, visiting Kate,” she said, forcing a smile.

“Right, me too. Come on, let’s go up!” Annleigh checked in, since she hadn’t visited before, Eva signed her name in the visiting book, and they stepped into the elevator, not saying a word or even looking at each other.

Eva reached to knock on the door as they reached Kate’s room, but Annleigh beat her to it, and opened the door before Kate even finished saying “come in.” Eva followed her in, and her heart began to beat a little faster when Kate met her eyes. She wondered if she was imagining her smile growing just a little brighter.

“Hey, guys. Annleigh, I didn’t realize you were coming,” she said, setting aside her laptop.

Annleigh took the seat next to Kate’s bed, and Eva hovered awkwardly by the wall. “Surprise! I wanted to make sure you were okay, like, in person.”

“I’m not exactly okay,” Kate said, still managing a smile. “But I think I’m getting there. I’m more fine than okay.”

“That’s fair,” Eva put in. “It’ll be awhile before you guys are okay.” She purposefully didn’t include herself in that assessment - she hadn’t been there the first night, hadn’t known the kids that were killed, had barely known Riley before she had confessed to the murders.

Kate clearly noticed, and started to say something, but Annleigh cut her off. “I just visited Clark’s grave. I apologized. My therapist said it would be healing.”

“What about Farrah?” Kate asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Farrah and I… I still have a lot to think about with her,” Annleigh said, trying to keep her tone light. “I don’t know if I’m ready to apologize. She hurt me, too.”

Eva resisted saying what she really wanted to say, which was “Farrah can’t apologize to  _ you _ . She’s dead. I don’t know what you’re waiting for.” She almost expected Kate, who was honest to a fault, to say it for her, but she seemed to sense that it really wasn’t a good time for that reminder.

Annleigh didn’t seem to notice how uncomfortable Kate and Eva were with that statement and barreled on. “Have either of you gotten your letters from the court yet? Mine came this morning.”

“I had to work today,” Eva said when Kate glanced at her to answer. “I haven’t been home since 8:30.”

“And I’m kinda stuck here.” Kate gestured to the room. “They’re already getting ready to hold the trial?”

“I think they want to get Riley out of custody.” Annleigh shrugged. “I bet they’ll wait until you’ve been released so you can be a witness. Plus, I think you’re technically a victim.”

Kate winced. “Yeah, can we not think about that?”

Annleigh grew quiet, clearly unsure what else to talk about. Eva racked her brain for a topic, too, but she really didn’t know anything about Annleigh besides the fact that she appeared to be ridiculously Christian. She honestly just wanted her to leave, though she felt bad about it, and Kate seemed to reflect the sentiment.

Annleigh was clearly horrible at taking hints, though, because she didn’t leave. “Anyways, Kate, what have you been doing to keep busy?”

Kate held up her phone. “I have beat at  _ least _ three dozen levels of Candy Crush by now. I think someone needs to stop me before it becomes an add-” She cut herself off, her smile fading as quickly as it had come. “Just… playing games. Talking to my brothers.”

“You have brothers?” Eva asked.

“Yeah, two older. Derrick and Jack. They’re both in college pretty far away. Jack is driving down this weekend, but Derrick’s going to school in Canada and only comes home for Christmas and summer vacation.” Kate shook her head and shrugged. “He only left about two weeks ago, so it’s not exactly a great time for me to be hospitalized, but here we are. Or I guess here I am.”

Eva wondered how Kate could just casually refer to the fact that she was in the hospital, not even miss a beat when she brought it up. It seemed pretty major to  _ her. _

Annleigh stayed for about another twenty minutes, and Kate visibly relaxed when the door shut. “Annleigh always makes me a little uncomfortable,” she confessed in a low voice as Eva sat down. “I think she’s one of those people who ‘doesn’t agree with the LGBT lifestyle.’” She put the last part in finger quotations.

Eva winced. “Ouch. Must suck being on a cheer team with her.”

“She’s nice enough. Honestly, I think the whole team is constantly blowing it out of proportion. Like, making too big a deal of it? The only one who really accepted me after I came out was-” She paused, closed her eyes, took a breath, and continued. “Was Chess.”

“She sounds like she was a great friend.”

Kate smiled wryly at her hands. “She was. I miss her so much.”

“I know.” Eva reached for her hand, thought better of it, and then was startled when Kate took it herself. “I think- I think she’d be proud of you, though. You did the right thing, trying to call the cops, even if Reese didn’t give you the chance.” She squeezed Kate’s hand. “I know  _ I’m _ proud of you.” She was worried that she crossed the line, but Kate’s bright smile assured her that she hadn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I can't remember when it was but I'm SURE Annleigh definitely had a weird reaction to Kate's sexuality at some point which is what I'm basing Eva and Kate's conversation after she left off of.


	5. Chapter Five

Kate 100% knew she had to let go of Eva’s hand. Any second now, she was going to make her uncomfortable and then she’d leave and Kate would never see her again. But she also really,  _ really _ didn’t want to let go.

Eva didn’t move to pull away, either, or showed any signs of being uncomfortable. In fact, she was smiling softly at Kate.

And what she’d said about Chess being proud of her… it made her want to cry, but in a good way. Thinking about Chess was so  _ hard _ . Kate would try to remember the good memories like her therapist wanted her to, but every time she tried, it ended in sobbing and clutching her pillow while her brain was overrun with memories from  _ that night _ . But what Eva had said about her almost made it easier to think about Chess, to accept that she was gone.

“Oh, shit, are you crying? Fuck, I’m sorry-”

Kate used her free hand to wipe a few tears from her eyes. “It’s okay. Chess is just- she’s- it’s been really hard to think about her.”

Eva squeezed her hand again, and God, Kate wanted a hug, too. But she was scared to ask for one, so she just clung to Eva’s hand like a lifeline, praying she wasn’t screwing whatever this was up by doing so.

“Do you wanna, um, talk about her?” Eva asked, almost shyly. “I don’t know if that would help or just make things worse or- sorry, I- ugh. I’m bad at this.”

“I don’t think you’re bad at this,” Kate mumbled. “And I think… it’s hard to talk, so…”

“You don’t have to. I just want you to know that I’m here for you, okay?” Eva made Kate look at her. “You don’t have to do everything by yourself, you know. You can trust me.”

Against her will, Kate started crying again, but Eva just rubbed her hand and stayed right where she was, comfortingly  _ there _ . Comfortingly alive and real and there.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” Kate mumbled after a moment. “You’ve known me for, what, two days? and I’m already crying my eyes out to you.”

“I don’t mind,” Eva reassured her earnestly. “You’ve been through a lot, Kate. It’s kind of understandable to cry. Honestly, I’d be worried if you didn’t.”

“Eva, I swear to God, you’ve got to stop saying nice and comforting things before I completely dehydrate myself,” Kate tried to joke.

“Sorry, sorry. Um, how about this? Water’s flavor is its temperature.”

That one made Kate absolutely crack up, and as she was laughing, she caught a glimpse of Eva’s pleased expression and her heart skipped a beat.

_ Shit, this- this- this  _ feeling _ isn’t good. _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva wanted to stay there with Kate for hours, but her mom started blowing up her phone, ordering her to come home  _ right now, Eva Sanchez, I mean it _ , so she reluctantly said goodbye to Kate and left, vaguely worried about what was going on at home but also over the moon at having spent almost 45 minutes holding Kate’s hand. And having made Kate laugh. And Kate trusting her enough to tell her a little bit about Chess. And just about Kate in general.

Just as she reached to put her house key in the lock, the door swung open and her younger sister yanked her inside. Baffled, Eva let Lily drag her into the kitchen, and her stomach dropped when she saw her grandmother standing next to her mother.

Not that she didn’t love her grandmother, of course. She was pretty awesome, as far as grandmothers go. But she tended to worry  _ way _ too much about Eva and her siblings. Eva had been hoping to keep the other night a secret so she didn’t get wrapped in bubble wrap and locked in the basement, but apparently that would likely be in her near future.

“EVA! Oh my goodness, Eva, darling, are you okay?” Her grandmother sandwiched her in a hug so tight she could barely breathe.

“Grandma, I can’t breathe,” she choked out.

“Oh! Sorry, darling. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Grandma. I was visiting a friend of mine-” She started to mention that Kate was in the hospital, but quickly realized that that wasn’t a good idea. “I’m ok.”

“Why didn’t you call me after what happened?” she fretted.

“It was pretty hectic, I wasn’t thinking straight,” Eva bullshitted. Her mom had been overbearing enough that night, she didn’t need worry-freak Grandma losing it, too. “I’m gonna go change out of my work clothes, okay? I’ll be right back.” She ran upstairs before anyone could reply, closed the door to her room behind her, and allowed herself a few seconds to replay Kate’s laughter in her mind before changing and reluctantly going back downstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laying in bed that night, Kate stared at the ceiling and found herself thinking about Cairo. How was she handling this? Her best friend was a  _ murderer _ and killed two people, purposefully. That had to be difficult. But also, was she blaming herself? She was the person closest to Riley. Even Kate wondered if there had been signs she’d just ignored because she’d thought Riley was harmless. And Cairo was closest to her. Was she beating herself up about not realizing?

_ Should I text her? _

_ She probably doesn’t want to hear from me. _

Cairo and Kate had always hated each other. Kate hated Cairo because she always acted like she and Chess were a couple and also she was just mean in general, and Cairo hated Kate because… with a start, Kate realized she had no idea why Cairo hated her so much.

And now she was thinking about something totally different.

For a moment, she imagined that their situations were reversed - that Chess had gone crazy and murdered Riley and Farrah - and had to stop because it made her start to freak out. God, was this Cairo’s reality?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Kate: hey guys. docs letting me out of the hospital tomorrow hopefully _

Eva glanced at her phone as she walked away from the house she’d just delivered a pizza to and smiled as she processed that. Kate was okay - at least, physically. It was one thing knowing Kate would be fine when she was in the hospital, but it was another thing knowing it when she was coming home.

_ ***-***-****: Kate, that’s wonderful! _ replied a number she didn’t know.  _ Let us know when you’re finally home, my dad wants to bring over dinner for your family! _ Maybe… Annleigh? Or Reese.

_ ***-***-****: On a separate note, Mattie’s being released from juvie this weekend. _ Matter of fact, no congratulations to Kate… probably Cairo.

_ Kate: we should make a card for her _

***-***-****:  _ Saying what? We’re very sorry we framed you for murder? _ Probably-Cairo. Eva took a minute to mark each number with who she thought it was.

_ Either Annleigh or Reese: Cairo, you’re the one who suggested it. We all owe her an apology, but you most of all. _

So that  _ was _ Cairo. Eva labeled her contact accordingly.

_ Cairo: I know I fucked up _

_ Kate: you got the freshman drunk and then suggested we frame her for murder _

_ Either Annleigh or Reese: Can we please try to keep the language in this group chat appropriate? _

Annleigh, then.

_ Kate: shit fuck bitch damn asshole _

_ Annleigh: Kate! _

Grinning to herself, Eva headed back to the pizza place she worked at to collect her next order, relieved that Kate was going to be fine and feeling her crush intensify with every cuss word she sent to the group chat to annoy Annleigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to one of my Wattpad friends for helping me find where Annleigh is weird about Kate being gay in the show: it's before Wallflower, right after she checks on Mattie


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little longer than the other ones. Kate finally starts healing, both physically and mentally! It's a slow process, but she's on her way! And Eva is a disaster lesbian who doesn't know how to handle cute girls

“I can walk perfectly fine.”

“It’s hospital policy, love.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You have to.”

Kate and her mom had been going back and forth about this for quite a while now. Hospital policy was that patients being released had to be taken down to the parking lot in a wheelchair.

Kate did not agree with this hospital policy.

“Mooooooooooooom,” she groaned. “I’m already able to walk around my room, can I please just walk down to the parking lot?”

“I don’t make the rules, love. Please, don’t be difficult.” There was a knock on the door as she finished her sentence. “Oh! That must be Jack. He’s bringing you some clothes to change into. Come in!”

Sure enough, it was her older brother, carrying a grocery bag with a sleeve Kate recognized hanging out of the top. “Hey, Kate, how’re you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Can I have my clothes?”

He handed them to her and she slipped into the bathroom, bringing her phone with her so she could check the group chat without her mom staring over her shoulder.

_ Reese: Kate, are you coming home today? _

_ Annleigh: Please let me know if you are! I’m making dinner for your family and need to know when to bring it over. _

_ Reese: Kate? Is everything okay? _

_ Reese: Oh, shit, are you not coming home today? _

_ Reese: I’m sorry! _

_ Kate: jeez, chill out guys. im being released in like 20 minutes _

_ ***-***-****: that’s great! _

That number must have been Eva, Kate realized, and she couldn’t help smiling as she marked the contact as such. She opened the door with one hand, pulling her ponytail from her collar with the other as she did so, and was greeted with a doctor, a nurse, both her parents, and her brother.

She groaned internally as she spotted the wheelchair next to the nurse, but nonetheless, under her mother’s stern gaze, sat in it when ordered and purposefully kept her gaze locked on her phone all the way down to the parking lot. Annleigh was grilling her on allergies, diets, number of people eating, and she kind of wanted her to chill out a bit. Definitely just because it was annoying. Not at all because she wanted Eva to text again.

_ Cairo: Guys, Mattie is being released from juvie tomorrow. I think we all owe it to her to help her and her family out. _

_ Cairo: Except Eva. _

_ Eva: I’ll bring her a pizza or something. I feel bad for her. _

Okay, so cute, gay,  _ and _ selfless.

Damn, Kate was falling hard.

_ Kate: where does she live? _

_ Cairo: I’ll get her address and text it to you guys. I’m the new team captain, so I’m going tomorrow to formally apologize. Everyone involved thought it’d be better to not have the entire team there when she gets out. _

_ Reese: Should we get her a card or something? _

_ Kate: dear mattie, sorry we framed you for murder lol, forgive us pls _

_ Cairo: Kate, knock it off. Reese, do whatever you want. _

Cairo was being more distant and professional than usual. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Kate was worried.

Wow, Kate worrying about Cairo? Who would’ve thunk?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Eva: Hey, you’re out of the hospital, right? How are you feeling? _

Eva hit send, then tossed her phone onto her bed and leaned her head back against her wall, her stomach twisting with nerves. She’d been drafting that text for almost an hour, and she was already having doubts about it.

It had been so easy to go see Kate and talk to her when she was in the hospital. Then it was “oh, she’s in the hospital, and you’re visiting! That’s good! Keeping her company!” But as glad as she was that Kate was home and safe, now she wasn’t sure how to proceed with their new friendship.

Her phone buzzed, and after a moment of indecision, she got up and checked it.

_ Kate: mom and dad wont get off my ass and its annoying _

_ Kate: but it is nice to be home _

_ Eva: I bet. Hospital rooms are awful. Specifically the rooms. _

_ Kate: yeah i can deal with halls and waiting rooms, but like patient rooms are the worst _

_ Kate: so uh, can i ask something weird? _

_ Eva: Yeah, totally. _

_ Kate: were not gonna stop hanging out just cuz im out of the hospital, right? _

_ Eva: We can totally still hang out. That sounds really cool to me. _

_ Kate: awesome _

Eva let her phone and the hand holding it fall to the mattress, closed her eyes, and leaned her head back, collecting her thoughts and grinning.

This was real. She had just texted with Kate. Kate who wanted to keep hanging out with her. Kate who wanted to see her again.

Kate who she might like a little bit too much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How the fuck is this a kids’ movie?” Kate asked, reaching for the bowl of popcorn.

Jack, stretched out across the entire couch, made a little “dunno” noise.

“They’re literally fucking, what the fuck?” She threw a piece of popcorn at the TV screen, which was playing Road to El Dorado.

“You know Mom’s probably listening in on us, right?”

“I think I’ve earned my cuss word rights for at least a few weeks.” Kate stopped talking after that and kept watching the movie, but her mind was up in her room, rereading the text conversation she’d been having with Eva all day.

She’d learned that Eva had three siblings, a younger sister, an older sister, and a youngest brother. She’d learned that Eva’s dad wasn’t in the picture, but she didn’t mind and hated him. She’d learned that Eva was  _ really _ into climatology, the unit on which Kate had hated and bullshitted her way through back in eighth grade. And she’d told Eva about her two brothers, about her cats, about her favorite movie.

What she liked about talking to Eva was that she didn’t make her talk about any of the events that happened at Riley’s house, but she didn’t back away when Kate did want to talk about it, either. Not that she was always talking about that, but sometimes it was nice to vent for a few messages and then be able to go right back to Eva being offended that Kate didn’t remember which kinds of lines referred to which fronts on weather maps.

Her therapist knew about Eva now, too. He knew that she’d been there for Kate, that she’d visited her in the hospital, and tomorrow she was going to tell him that they’d been texting a lot. He’d been very positive about her, and had reassured Kate multiple times that she wasn’t a bad person for making a new friend after Chess’s death.

What she  _ hadn't  _ told him was that she kinda-sorta-maybe-definitely had way more than just platonic feelings for Eva.

Liking Eva felt different than liking Chess. Liking Eva felt so much  _ bigger _ . It felt like hundreds more butterflies in her stomach and hundreds more smiles into her pillow and hundreds more maybe-flirting texts to send.

Maybe that was because maybe,  _ maybe _ , Eva liked her back.

Whereas Chess never did and never would.

And- and as hard as it was, Kate was slowly but surely becoming able to process everything that happened back in August, now that she knew who the real murderer was. She was able to think more about Chess without crying - like she was right now - and she was making her peace with the fact that Chess wasn't coming back.

"Kate, are you even paying attention?"

She was pulled rudely back to reality at Jack's question, and just nodded to show she was.

"Can we talk?"

Oh, fuck. Kate's parents were  _ relentless _ about talking about everything. It was hard. But Jack had just stepped back and let her have space.

"What even happened that night?"

"Which one?" she asked in a flat tone.

"A week ago."

"I got there, psyched myself up to go in, argued with Riley again about- about Chess and Farrah, ran off to try to call the police, Reese told me I couldn't, Annleigh and Reese got into a fistfight, we went down to the basement to get our stuff, Riley locked us down there but we didn't know it was her, we argued about who did it, Riley lost it and stabbed me, and then it's just kind of a blur." She managed to get through her brief explanation without letting her tears spill over into her voice, but she bit down on the edge of her blanket once she was done to muffle a sob. She'd already had to explain to the police, to the doctor, to her therapist, and to her parents. She  _ hated _ talking about that night so much.

“I’m sorry, Kate. That’s not fair to you, that you had to go through that.”

“Well, it’s over now, and I’m trying to move on. I don’t want to talk about this.” Her resolve to stay in the basement crumbling, she gathered up her blankets and went up to her room, already reaching for her phone. She started to click on her conversation with Eva, but then scrolled down, down, down to the last text she’d sent to Chess.

She didn’t click on it. That would hurt too much. But she read the last message she’d sent over and over and over again.

_ chess lets just go _

She’d sent it right before Chess had followed her outside, when her eyes were stinging with anger tears from the fight with Farrah and when all she wanted was to go see a stupid movie or something with her best friend.

God, she was a wreck.

But Eva had said it was okay. Eva said it was understandable and even expected for her to be crying so much. Eva said she wasn’t weird or crazy for her to be sad and frustrated.

_ Kate: hey, do you wanna hang out tomorrow? _

_ Eva: Sure! _


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be honest, this fic was originally a one-shot...

This wasn’t a date. Eva had to keep reminding herself of that. This was just going over to Kate’s house to hang out and watch a movie. This was just two friends spending time together.

Still, she made a point to pin her rainbow pin on her jacket. A different one from that night, of course. And she wore her favorite jeans and brushed her teeth for at least five minutes and told herself not to stress too much, because it was just Kate.

Reminding herself that she was hanging out with Kate didn’t help.

She liked Kate  _ so much _ . She was done denying it, but she did feel a little bad about it. This was a bad time for Kate.

But God.

She liked her so much.

Before she rang the doorbell, she had to stop and stare at Kate’s house for a moment. She knew Kate’s family wasn’t exactly struggling financially - she could afford Giles Corey without a scholarship, after all - but this was a  _ big house. _ Like, wow.

She rang the doorbell and chewed the inside of her cheek, her stomach full of butterflies as she heard footsteps running to the door.

Kate appeared behind the heavy wooden door, her smile wide and bright, and Eva felt her own smile shift to match. “Eva! Hi!”

“Hey!” Kate was walking, apparently, which was great, but as she led Eva to the basement she noticed a light limp, and as they went down the stairs Kate gripped the railing enough to turn her knuckles white. Eva pretended not to notice, knowing Kate would hate admitting she wasn’t 100% physically fine, and also figuring that from what she’d heard, Kate’s parents were fretting and doting over her enough to drive her crazy.

She winced internally at her own choice of words.

“Look, Eva… thank you for coming.” Kate took a deep breath, a signal that there was a “but” coming. “But you don’t have to keep talking to me and hanging out with me if you don’t want to. We all know our cheer team is fucked, anyways, it’s not worth trying to bond anymore.”

“What are you  _ talking _ about?” Eva cocked an eyebrow, hoping she looked cool. “I really like y- like hanging out with you, Kate. Trust me, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t.” Her heart hammering at how close she’d come to admitting her feelings for Kate, she waited for her reply.

“Are you sure?”

Eva grabbed a pillow from the couch and tossed it at Kate. “Yeah, duh.”

Kate stared at her for a moment, clutching the pillow, then smiled, laughed, and threw it back  _ way _ harder than it had been thrown in the first place.

“Ow! Hey,  _ rude _ !” Eva grabbed another pillow and threw it as hard as she could, and then they were having a full on pillow fight. Kate showed no mercy despite Eva trying not to hit her in the leg, and twenty minutes later they were lying on the floor, surrounded by pillows, panting and laughing.

“I won,” Kate boasted.

“What even are the rules for pillow fights, though? Because until we know what they are, we really can’t say whether or not you won.”

“The rules are Kate always wins.”

“I doubt that.”

“Oh, really?” Kate grabbed a pillow, rolled over, and shoved it in Eva’s face. “I won! Say it!”

“Never!” Eva grabbed the pillow back and pushed it into Kate’s face, who was laughing too hard to resist and rolled over on her back, Eva crouched over her. Suddenly, Eva found herself face to face with Kate, close enough to hear her heartbeat, and  _ oh my God I’m on my hands and knees over Kate oh God oh fuck _ .

Neither of them said anything for a minute, just stared at each other. Eva’s brain was screaming at her to move, to get out of Kate’s face, but  _ shit her eyes are so pretty. _

The door at the top of the stairs swung open, and Eva had just enough time to jump away before Kate’s mom’s face appeared at the bottom of the stairway. “Is everything okay down here, girls? I heard shouting.”

“We’re fine, Mom.” Kate’s scowl probably could’ve driven away a bear, and it certainly did the trick on her mother, who quickly disappeared.

Eva suddenly found it hard to look at her, and instead started to gather up pillows and put them back on the couch. Her heart was beating in her chest as hard as it had after she’d watched  _ It _ , and she was sure her face was tomato-red.

“So… should we watch that movie now?” Kate asked, and she almost sounded nervous.

“Yeah. Sure. What movie?”

Kate gestured to the TV stand, which had shelves of DVDs on it. “Or we could also just watch Netflix. Like Supernatural or something.”

“Are you a Supernatural fan?”

“My brother is. He made me watch most of the first season with him.” Kate offered her a grin. “Don’t tell anyone, but I prefer The Great British Bake-Off.”

“Who doesn’t? Should we watch that?”

“Nothing better than dramatic bakers freaking out about being in a tent, right?”

“Meh, I watch it for Sue and Mel, mostly.”

“Oh my God, they’re the best.”

And just like that, the easy, friendly dynamic was back.

Eva’s heart didn’t get the memo, though, and it sped up every time she glanced at Kate and caught her doing the same thing back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate was very glad Eva was on the couch and she was on the armchair, because otherwise she wasn’t sure she’d be able to resist leaning into her.

Right before her mother had come downstairs and ruined everything, she’d been sure Eva was at least wanting to kiss her, and she was trying to psych herself up to make the first move. God, she was  _ so close so fucking close fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuck. _

She took a few deep breaths like her therapist had reminded her to do when she’d seen him that morning, but her mind was still whirling with  _ Eva Eva Eva but you can’t but she’s right there Eva Eva no not yet but Eva Eva Eva Eva _

Halfway through the first episode they’d watched, Eva’s grandmother called, so she stepped into the office and Kate buried her face in a pillow, which really didn’t help since it just served to remind her of Eva shoving the pillow back at her and then Eva on top of her and then-

_ AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH _

_ Chess, I wish you were here. _

If Chess was still alive, Kate could have texted her while she waited for Eva to come back. She could’ve vented her feelings and frustration and gotten advice on how to be cool and how to not fuck this up.

But Chess was dead, and at that thought, Kate sobered up.

“You need to chill,” she whispered to herself.

“Hey, um, I kinda have to go,” Eva said from the office door. “My grandma just showed up at our house and freaked out when I wasn’t there - she’s been crazy overprotective ever since- um, anyways, I’d better go calm her down. I’ll- I’ll see you soon?”

“I’m going back to school Monday, so maybe then?” Kate asked hopefully.

“Yeah, I’ll see you then. Uh, do you need a ride? My car’s kind of shitty but it runs-”

“A ride would be great. Thanks, Eva.” Kate walked her all the way to the front door, and then hugged her before she could stop herself. “Thank you so much for coming, Eva. I mean it. That- that was fun.”

Eva’s smile could have parted clouds and shone brighter than the sun. “I’m glad I came, Kate.” Then she jogged back to her car, waved at Kate, got in, and drove away, leaving Kate leaning against the doorway, scared to turn around in case someone caught her blushing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this pillow fight fluff killed you as thoroughly as it killed me.


	8. Chapter Eight

Picking Kate up Monday morning was almost a surreal experience.

She climbed into Eva’s front seat, clutching a thermos and blinking sleep from her eyes. “Mornin’,” she mumbled, fumbling for her seat belt.

“Huh. For some reason I thought you were a morning person,” teased Eva, who hadn’t thought that for a single second.

“Ugh, fuck mornings.”

Eva laughed as the car turned out of Kate’s neighborhood and towards Giles Corey High School.

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous. She was so nervous she thought she might puke. But she’d committed to this school now, and it was way too late to go back to West High.

Kate pointed her to the office, still yawning, and then left for her first class, and Eva suddenly felt so alone without a face she knew. It wasn’t even specifically Kate she needed by her side anymore, it was just anyone she knew. Even Cairo or Annleigh.

Speaking of Cairo…

Eva spotted her on her phone in the main common area on the way to the office, and if she was being totally honest, Cairo looked like shit. She looked like she hadn’t slept since last Saturday, like she’d been crying, like she’d barely eaten anything or drank any water.

She also saw Annleigh, hovering in a corner and staring at Cairo like she was wondering if she should go talk to her. Judging by the look on Cairo’s face, Eva really hoped that Annleigh didn’t try for her sake.

Before she could dwell any longer on that night - before the memory of blood slowly spreading across Kate’s grey leggings could make her even more anxious - she stepped into the office to meet with her counselor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was Kate’s second cup of coffee today and she  _ still _ felt like she was about to fall over.

Her dad had said that today, thinking he was funny: “you look like you’re about to fall over!” Then her mom had glared at him and not-so-subtly gestured to the bandage visible under Kate’s leggings, and he’d gone all quiet and left Kate feeling weird.

She hadn’t actually fallen over after being stabbed. Riley had pulled her to her feet and held a knife to her neck, and Eva was right there to catch her after Reese knocked Riley out.

Still. She got what her mom was trying to say, and she hated it.

Plus, it made her think of  _ that night _ , when before all she’d been thinking was  _ Eva’s coming to pick me up, Eva’s taking me to school, Eva Eva Eva. _ It made her think of what Riley had said as she drove the knife into Kate’s thigh - “you know, Kate, it has been so hard keeping you on this team, because you’re so good, you’re just so fucking annoying.” It made her leg sting and her heart ache because  _ Riley stabbed Chess, Riley killed Chess.  _ It made her think of how Riley had phrased that - it made her think  _ it could’ve been you she killed. _

It pretty much fucked up her morning, which was already shitty.

Everyone was staring at her, staring at the bandage on her leg. She could hear the whispers, knew they were about her. She knew they were whispering  _ she framed Mattie she framed the innocent freshman it was her fault maybe it was her maybe she helped Riley maybe Riley didn’t do anything maybe it was all her _ and oh God she needed air.

She speed-limped to the nearest bathroom, which in hindsight wasn’t exactly  _ fresh _ air, but locking herself in a stall gave her space and got her away from the fucking whispers.

“Kate? Are you okay?”

Oh, God, Reese. Reese, who had killed Clark, wasn’t exactly the #1 person to help Kate during her  _ I was almost murdered _ freak-out.

“Kate, I saw you run in here. You looked pretty upset.”

“I-I-”

“Oh, I am  _ not _ the right person for this,” she heard Reese mumble to herself, but she didn’t leave like Kate wanted her to. “Kate, can you come out and talk to me?”

“Reese, p-please go away.”

“Do you need, like, Annleigh or someone? Oh, maybe Eva? Or a counselor?”

“I just need sp-pace.” Help from Eva did sound nice - she’d been there for Kate in the hospital and let her cry without stressing her out more - but it was Eva’s first day and she didn’t need to be dealing with Kate’s bullshit.

“I don’t know… I’m not sure I should leave you alone.”

“I’m f-fine, Reese.” Even as Kate said it, she knew she was wrong, but she stuffed her hoodie sleeve into her mouth to muffle her sobbing so Reese would just go away.

“Kate?” She watched as Reese’s feet came into view below the stall door. “Do you want me to just sit with you for a bit?”

“Reese,  _ leave me alone. _ ”

“Oh- okay.” Reese left, and Kate sat there, muffling her sobs and preparing to go back out in the halls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Almost five minutes into Eva’s homeroom class (she’d chosen a seat in the back to avoid being noticed), there was a knock on the door and the irritated teacher opened it to let Kate in.

“I would appreciate it if you could make some semblance of an effort to be on time, Miss Dalton,” she tsked.

Kate mumbled an apology and made a beeline for the seat next to Eva, who noticed that her eyes were rimmed with red.

“Are you okay?” she whispered.

Kate just nodded and kept her eyes locked on her desk, which made it very visible that she wasn’t actually okay.

As class let out, Kate started to speed walk away, but she was still limping and Eva easily caught up to her. “Kate, wait up!”

“Eva-”

“Why don’t we get some coffee or something after school?” Eva asked before she could process what she was saying.

“But-”

“Look, it just seems like you’re having a shitty day and I want to help.” Eva reached for her hand. “Please?”

Kate thought for a moment. “Okay.”

“Cool.” Eva smiled at her, chasing away the memories of blood and knives seeing Cairo and Annleigh had dug up. “So, I don’t actually know where my next class is?”

Kate finally smiled. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Eva let her lead the way, already repeating her mantra from Saturday in her head:  _ this isn’t a date, it's just two friends hanging out. _

_ Definitely not a fucking date. _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate, sure to their previous conversation the day after  _ that night  _ about coffee, ordered a caramel latte of some sort, and Eva got a black coffee, no cream or sugar. Kate insisted on paying, since it was Eva’s idea, and Eva was powerless against an insistent Kate Dalton.

They sat by the window, not saying anything, which was fine for Kate. God, her day had been so damn long and just sitting with Eva, drinking coffee and being in each other’s presence, felt so peaceful.

Eventually, she felt like she needed to say something, so she spoke up. “How was your first day at Giles Corey?”

“Weird. People somehow already know I was there last Saturday, which kind of puts a damper on my reputation as the new girl.” Eva nudged Kate, whose expression was falling. “Hey, I don’t mind. As long as I get to study climatology and hang out with you, I’m happy.”

_ Hang out with you. _

Kate managed a smile back at her. “Good. Look, maybe this whole thing will blow over?”  _ Or at least leave you alone. _ “We caught the real murderer. I can deal with people knowing I went along with the plan to frame Mattie.”  _ As long as they don’t think I killed them. _

Eva and Kate smiled at each other for a minute. Every muscle in Kate’s body had been tense all day, but now, one by one, they were starting to relax.

Then someone called their names behind them and every muscle tensed right back up.

“Hey, Annleigh,” Eva said, turning her attention away from Kate.

“Hey! Mind if I sit with you?” Annleigh started to set her bag down, then paused. “Wait, are you on a date? Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt-”

“We’re not on a date,” Eva said curtly, “and you’re free to sit with us if you want.”

Annleigh did sit, though awkwardly, and none of them said anything for a minute. This was nothing like Kate and Eva’s comfortable silence a few minutes before, though, and this one was deafening. Kate stared into her cup, watching the steam rise and wishing Annleigh would just go away.

“So…” Annleigh said after a minute. “Did you guys get Cairo’s text?”

“What text?” Eva asked. She wasn’t letting Kate speak, which was probably best for everyone.

Annleigh pulled out her phone and showed them. “We have practice after school three weeks from now. And Mattie’s coming back to school on Wednesday! Cairo said she got home yesterday.” She beamed, as if she’d delivered good news. Well, Mattie being back was good news, but practice wasn’t. The concept of practice filled Kate with dread and made her want to run.

They ended up leaving a few minutes later, and left Annleigh studying while Eva drove Kate home. She was clearly taking the long route, which Kate recognized from days she’d taken it with Chess.

Thinking about Chess didn’t hurt as much anymore. She knew who’d killed her, knew that her trial was in two weeks. She knew her killer would be found guilty, and she hoped that Chess had found peace.

For now, she let herself focus on the present, where she was in a car with a cute girl she’d just bought coffee for.

And that night, while she picked at her dinner and listened to her parents babble about work (Jack had left the day before), she thought about Eva’s warm smile and her noisy car and how she’d included hanging out with Kate in the short list of things she wanted to do, and she didn’t think about Cairo or Chess or Annleigh or practice or  _ that night _ .

Just Eva.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, practice is in three weeks, huh? And we all know Kate and Eva are dating by Finale, which is probably their first practice........... I've got three weeks to make this work and a very, VERY loose plan.


	9. Chapter Nine

“Hey, honey, I have a surprise for you!”

Eva dumped her bag in the hallway, exhausted. “Hey, Mom.”

“Come to the kitchen, please!”

Eva just wanted to grab something to eat and then run upstairs to get started on her homework, but there was no arguing with her mom, so she followed her to the kitchen.

The surprise turned out to be not exhausting - Eva’s mom had made burgers, and had even pulled a bag of frozen fries out and cooked them.

Eva sat and ate and listened to her younger siblings eagerly telling their mom all about their days, praying her mom wouldn’t ask about hers.

Being back at school, hearing the whispers… she knew she was luckier than Kate or Cairo or Annleigh or Reese, but every time she heard a mention of  _ that night _ , her brain showed her the memories of Kate bleeding and bleeding and bleeding on the coffee table, of Riley pulling a knife out of her coat, of knowing this kind girl, Reese, was a murderer.

“Eva, how was your day?”

Fuck.

“Fine,” she answered, trying to sound casual. “Got lost a couple times, then Kate and I got coffee after school.”

“Oooh, like a  _ date _ ?” Lily asked teasingly.

Eva tossed a fry at her. “No, and you’d better not joke about that when she’s around.”

“Why not? Don’t you like her?”

“Because I said so.”

“Mom!” Lily used her trademarked puppy eyes against their mother.

“Lily, don’t tease Eva.”

“But Mom-”

“Lily, you heard the boss,” Eva said smugly.

Luca started crying for no reason then, and Eva managed to escape up to her room - grabbing a handful of fries as she went - and started her math homework, already cursing a math teacher she’d had for one class.

And hoping beyond hope that Lily didn’t ask if they were dating when Kate was around, because Kate didn’t need that kind of discomfort after Chess.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So, tell me about your first day back.” Dr. Ramirez leaned forward in his fancy office chair, and Kate automatically leaned back on the couch.

“Everyone was whispering about me,” she said in a flat tone. She had a lot of practice pretending she didn’t feel anything, even though her feelings were constantly threatening to boil over. “I ended up freaking out in the bathroom and getting to class five minutes late even though Eva drove me and she was perfectly on time.”

“What else?”

“Reese tried to help when I was freaking myself out, but I didn’t want to talk to her.”

“Why not?”

God, she wanted to be able to tell her therapist about why she was feeling so conflicted about Reese, but she still hadn’t told the cops she’d killed Clark and she wanted to do it first.

“I just wanted to be alone.”

“Did it work?”

“Dunno. Pulled my shit together and got to class.” Kate resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “It was Eva’s first day, so I helped her find her classes and locker and stuff, which was a distraction. People are whispering about her, too, though.”

“You’ve mentioned this Eva a lot, even though you’ve only known her for just over a week.”

Kate felt her face going a little bit pink, and she stared at a spot on the ceiling. “I knew  _ of _ her before, because-” She paused to prepare herself for saying the name- “because Riley was obsessed with her. I always saw her as some fucking goddess figure or whatever, but she’s just cool. She came over Saturday after I got home from here.”

“Did she? Was it good or bad?”

She couldn’t help smiling. “It was good. She told me she actually liked hanging out with me and we had a pillow fight and then watched TV. She had to go after about an hour and a half or so, though. We got coffee together after school today, too.”

Dr. Ramirez made a note on his clipboard, which made her pause.

“What are you writing down?”

He didn’t answer for a moment. “Kate, how do you feel about Eva?”

“What?”

“How do you feel about Eva?”

Kate searched for the words for a minute. “We’re just friends.”

“Kate.”

“I- I-” She buried her face in her hands, scared to say the words she’d been thinking for days aloud. “I have a crush on her,” she mumbled, but thankfully, he didn’t make her say it again.

“How does that make you feel?”

“I want Chess,” she admitted. “I haven’t liked any girls since- since the sleepover, and I miss her. I miss telling her about them and her teasing me about them and texting with her on dates when the girl left for a second and she could help me not freak out. I don’t know what I’m doing with Eva, and I want Chess to tell me.”

“You had romantic feelings for Chess, too, if I recall.”

“Well, yeah, but- they were going away and she was straight.”

“Does having feelings for Eva remind you of those feelings for Chess?”

“Sometimes?” She took a breath to calm herself down before continuing. “It kind of feels different, if that makes sense.”

“How does it feel different?”

This was the kind of conversation she would’ve had with Chess, but it almost felt like a relief. She really did want to vent about Eva, and if the only person she could vent to was a middle-aged man in a tie with a PhD, then fuck it, that was the only person she could vent to and she was going to take advantage of it. “Because… because for one thing, Eva’s gay, too. I have an actual chance with her. And sometimes it feels like she’s flirting with me, and-” She considered telling about the almost-kiss during the pillow fight, but decided to keep that to herself. “And- I don’t know. It’s just different.”

“I see.” He took another note, and she tried to collect her thoughts.

“Am I a bad person for liking her so much?” she asked in a small voice.

“Kate, it has been a full semester since Chess died,” he said in an even, professional voice. “You’re still grieving, and you probably will be for a long time. But picture that grief as a bowl full of marbles, where each color of marble is a different emotion: another grief marble is taken out of that bowl every so often, and it makes room for other marbles, like happiness, excitement, love-” She blushed but didn’t comment- “and other positive emotions. Your grief marbles are starting to be replaced, and that’s okay. It’s even a good thing. You can be happy, Kate. Chess would want that for you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Kate: hey _

_ Eva: Hey. Is everything ok? _

_ Kate: yeah, just wanna talk to you _

_ Eva: About anything specific? _

_ Kate: no _

_ Kate: i just like talking to you _

Kate  _ really _ had to stop being cute and flirting with her before Eva exploded. This was too much for her poor heart to handle.

She and Kate texted for over an hour about the randomest stuff, about everything except for the cheer team and any of their meetings in Riley’s basement. They talked about something cute Kate’s cat had done and the crayon drawing Luca had made on Eva’s bedroom door and the reading homework for English.

Kate seemed more open tonight, more light and friendly and flirty. Eva hoped this was a good thing, even if it was bad for her blood pressure. She hoped that it meant Kate was getting better.

She hoped it meant that maybe her transition to GCHS could be made a little easier by dating a cute girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry I didn't get this out sooner! Had a riding lesson and then my sister wanted to hang out, so I didn't have much time to write as I wanted, so it's a little shorter than I wanted. But Kate's taking more steps to healing!


	10. Chapter Ten

It was the smallest fucking thing.

Kate pressed too hard on her paper and her pencil lead snapped.

Not a big deal. She even had more lead in the pencil to use. But somehow that tiny piece of lead, the small flecks of it around her answer, the dark line suddenly cut off, was what she was crying about.

Not crying, exactly. Not the sobbing into her pillow that still happened every so often. Not loud and screaming and wailing. Just a few tears stinging her eyes and threatening to spill over. Nothing she couldn’t handle with a swipe of her sleeve. But God, why the fuck was she crying in class over  _ broken pencil lead? _

She finished her test just as the bell rang, and just barely made it to her next class without being late. Normally she could use her passing periods as time to just slow down and collect her thoughts, but being rushed meant her brain was still buzzing with equations and statistics and formulas, which weren’t exactly helpful in World History. She was on her wit’s end already, scared she’d break at any moment, and then the teacher called on her to answer a question she hadn’t been paying attention to.

There was a time when she would have taken this in stride. She would’ve said, “Sorry, sir, wasn’t paying attention,” and not actually been sorry about it. She would’ve said something sarcastic that made the teacher smile and the class laugh. But today she just mumbled, “Can you repeat the question?” And then she answered it wrong, and someone in the back of the class snickered, and she was pushed a little further towards the edge.

Then, in the hallway, she saw a freshman at her locker, earbuds in and fumbling with a French textbook, and with a start, she realized that freshman’s locker used to be Farrah’s. All of a sudden, she remembered dropping by that locker to ask if they had practice today, waiting with her to get lunch when Chess decided they should try to be friends with their teammates, and  _ oh shit I think I’m gonna be sick. _

Tears fogging her vision, she speed-walked the best she could with her wounded leg, ignoring the dull ache that spread through her muscles every time she put weight on the bad one, and rushed outside, savoring the sting of the cold air on her face.

“Hey.”

She froze, barely daring to breathe as the familiar voice registered itself in her thoughts.

“Hey, Cairo,” she said, a bit more snippily than she’d intended. She glanced over her shoulder, and there was her new team captain, sitting on a bench despite the cold with her laptop sitting on her legs, which were propped up and taking up the whole bench. Typical Cairo.

“Cutting class?”

Kate hesitated. “Not intentionally.”

Cairo raised a once-perfectly-manicured eyebrow.

“Just… long day.”

Cairo studied her for a moment, then moved her legs. “Sit down.”

“Why?”

“Look, if I’m gonna be your new team captain, I’ve gotta at least try to get along with you, so sit with me until you feel better.”

“If you’re cutting class, you’re not a great role model,” Kate muttered, but took the seat and hugged her knees to her chest, dropping her bag on the ground by the bench.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“No, it’s stupid.”

“Is it a snowball thing?”

“What?”

“My dad likes to spew some shit whenever I get pissed about stupid things. It’s something like ‘you’re upset about something else but suppressing it and it’s coming out as frustration over a stuck zipper blah blah blah’. Is that it?”

“That- that actually might be it,” Kate admitted. “I haven’t been sleeping great and Riley’s trial is next weekend and there’s a bunch of other shit going on. I cried over some broken pencil lead today, Cairo, I think I’m losing it.”

“Hey, at least you didn’t cry over spilled milk,” Cairo answered without tearing her gaze from her laptop screen, and it took Kate a second to realize that was a joke.

Worst part was, it was actually a funny joke and a laugh escaped her lips before she could stop it. Cairo smirked, and Kate found she didn’t want to cry anymore.

She ended up ditching the rest of that class - how do you walk in halfway through third period? - and walking in with Cairo to fourth. They weren’t BFFs and never would be, and they were barely friends, but it felt like they were starting to heal the age-old rift between them.

At the very least, they didn’t hate each other with every fiber of their respective beings anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva had a list of things she had to do during her lunch break.

Comforting Reese? Not on her list.

But fuck, would she be an asshole if she just left her crying in the corner of the locker room?

Yeah, probably.

“Uh, hey, Reese,” she said hesitantly, slowly letting her backpack fall to the floor. “Everything okay?”

“I’m fine, Eva,” she snapped, but Eva would be willing to bet money that was a lie.

“Reese, that’s bullshit.” She sat next to her, but didn’t touch her. “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer for a minute, so Eva waited patiently, even though she was supposed to talk to Cairo about something and Cairo was scary when she was mad.

After a bit, Reese sniffled and rubbed her eyes, and Eva prepared to listen.

“Ihaven’tconfessedtothepoliceyet,” she whispered quickly, and it took Eva a second to decipher that.

“Why not?”

“I’m scared, Eva. What if I end up in prison? I’m over eighteen!”

“It was an accident, Reese. You’ll be fine.”

“But I killed him!”

Eva wanted to say something comforting, but also she didn’t want to lie, and she didn’t actually know what Reese’s punishment would be, so she was kind of at a loss. “Look, I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I’m sure the longer you wait, the worse it’ll be.” She tried for a comforting smile and hoped it didn’t look like she was grimacing. “I’m driving Kate home today, but I can drop you by the police station before I go to work. I’m sure Kate wouldn’t mind.”

Reese was quiet for another long moment, then took a deep breath and nodded.

“Cool. C’mon, let’s go get lunch, yeah?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Eva: Hey, Reese is catching a ride with us today. I said I’d bring her to the police station. _

_ Kate: potassium _

_ Eva: You did not just pull that potassium shit with me. _

_ Kate: ;) _

_ Eva: Jfc Kate _

_ Kate: ;) _

Kate sent that last text, popped her last strawberry in her mouth, and started packing up her bag, double-checking that she had her chemistry homework - Mr. Davis was the  _ worst _ about late work - and put her earbuds in, turning up the volume as loud as she dared on her way to class. Despite her shitty morning, she was feeling pretty good now that she’d eaten something and had a civil conversation with Cairo, and that mood improved when she caught up to Eva and Reese after school and Eva’s smile visibly got brighter when she saw Kate.

“Hey, guys, ready to go?” she asked, stuffing her book back into her bag.

“Yeah, c’mon.” Eva led Reese and Kate to her car, and Kate surrendered the shotgun seat to Reese, hoping to make her feel better. She couldn’t tell if it worked, but at least she was trying, right?

Right?

Eva turned the radio on as background chatter, which helped alleviate the awkward silence in the car, and Kate stared out the window, thinking.

The police station wasn’t far from the school, and Kate clutched the edge of her hoodie so tightly her knuckles went white as memories from the sleepover returned. Eva glanced back with a worried look, and Kate managed a tight smile for her, even though she could feel her stomach roiling at what they’d done to Mattie.

After a few moments of Kate and Eva reassuring and encouraging Reese, she managed to get out of the car, and they waited until she was in the building before Kate moved to the front seat and they left.

“Are you okay?” Eva asked quietly.

“Meh. Guess what?” Kate asked eagerly, trying to distract Eva from her not-so-good answer.

“What?”

“Cairo and I hung out today without killing each other.”

Eva whistled. “Am I living in an alternate universe?”

“That’s a valid question. We actually didn’t talk much, just chilled near each other. We were both skipping third.”

“I’m torn between scolding you for cutting class and being proud of you for getting along with Cairo.” Eva turned into Kate’s neighborhood. “I’m gonna go with being proud, since I’ve cut class a few times myself.”

“Aha! I knew you weren’t a goody-two-shoes!”

Eva pressed a hand to her heart dramatically, but quickly returned it to the steering wheel. “I’m offended you ever thought that of me at all.” Kate stuck out her tongue at Eva, and she returned it. “Well, we’re here. See you tomorrow?”

“Dark and too early,” Kate joked, then reached back for her bag and waved goodbye to Eva, her grin appearing to be permanent. She checked her phone as she headed to the kitchen for something to eat and found an active group chat.

_ Reese: Hey, guys, I’m finally going to the police. Wish me luck! _

_ Annleigh: Good luck, Reese! Everything will be fine! I’m praying for you! _

_ Cairo: Don’t worry, Reese, it’ll be fine at some point. _

_ Annleigh: Eva, Kate? _

_ Kate: we were driving home, sorry _

_ Reese: Just driving? ;) _

_ Kate: bye _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reese is living up to her rep in the tags as helping Kateva get together ;) also Cairo and Kate can apparently talk without murdering each other! Who knew?


	11. Chapter Eleven

_ Kate: are you up _

_ Eva: Kate, it’s midnight what the f u c k _

_ Kate: so your awake _

_ Eva: Yes _

_ Eva: What do you want _

_ Kate: lets sneak out together _

_ Eva: Again, what the f u c k _

_ Kate: pls? _

_ Kate: [image] _

_ Eva: Did you seriously just send me a picture of you pouting? _

_ Kate: yeah _

_ Kate: cmon lets go for a walk or somethin _

_ Eva: Tbh you had me at “lets sneak out together,” I’m already putting my sneakers on _

_ Kate: good because im on your lawn _

Eva glanced out her window and sighed good-naturedly at the phone light illuminating Kate’s big smile. Her front door was squeakier than Jerry (actually, scratch that, that damn mouse never said a word), so she crawled out her window and carefully leaped off the roof. Truth be told, she’d done that exactly once, and she’d gotten caught immediately, so for the first time, her heartbeat’s increased speed wasn’t solely Kate’s fault.

“I cannot believe you talked me into this,” she grumbled, but she was smiling and Kate clearly could tell she wasn’t in the least bit pissed.

“I biked here, but now that I’m thinking about it, you probably shouldn’t open the garage door to get yours,” she said thoughtfully.

The odds were completely in Eva’s favor, because she’d had her bike out earlier to check the tires and it was still in her backyard. Kate’s face lit up when Eva pulled it out, and soon they were biking down the trail just behind where Eva had gone to elementary school. Kate, apparently, had little regard for her own personal safety, and enjoyed purposefully riding over rocks and bumps and then catching herself at the last minute, which kind of freaked Eva out, but she didn’t say anything.

For being late January, it was fairly warm, but Eva was still glad she’d brought her coat as they rolled up to the playground. Kate dumped her bike by a bench and somehow, literally seconds later, she was on top of the monkey bars, so Eva followed her up and they sat for a few minutes, just looking at the scenery, stars, and each other.

“It’s so different here at night,” Eva commented.

“I come here all the time at night. I’m not used to seeing it in daylight, really,” Kate told her. She was sitting so close Eva had to hold as still as she could not to touch her. “Actually… this is the second time I’ve come since the sleepover.”

“Did you…” Eva paused, but Kate didn’t seem like she was on the edge of a breakdown, so she (carefully) continued. “Did you come here with Chess?”

“I’ve only come by myself a few times. I tried back in September, but I couldn’t handle it and didn’t come back.” Kate glanced at her. “It’s better when you’re not alone.”

“I agree.” Suddenly, Eva realized this was the first time they’d hung out without risk of interruption. In the hospital, nurses were constantly barging in to do whatever medical shit Kate needed, at Kate’s house her mom was always checking on them, and Eva was starting to wonder if Annleigh was tracking them at school specifically to annoy them. But here at a playground at 1 AM, they were totally and completely alone.

“Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you regret transferring?”

“Not really. Giles Corey has better classes.”

“But everybody’s always whispering about us and the team.”

“I know.”

“How do you just not care?”

“Because I remind myself that I’m at Giles Corey for science, not for them, and then it’s easy to watch all the fucks I give about them fly away.”

Kate laughed, and Eva glanced over at her with a grin. “You really don’t care?”

“Sometimes I care a little bit, but they aren’t worth it, Kate. I only care about what you think of me.”

Kate met her eyes, and Eva held her breath as she noticed the sparkle there. She’d never thought of brown eyes as being outstandingly beautiful, but God, she could’ve stared into Kate’s chocolate-colored eyes forever.

“Eva Sanchez, you are one of a kind,” she whispered, and yep, it was official - call the funeral home, because Eva was 1000% dead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ I only care what you think about me. _

God.

Kate scrambled for something to say, and came up with something sweet about Eva being one of a kind. She was almost worried Eva would think she was crazy, but instead her eyes widened and she visibly blushed.

“Kate…”

Kate stared at the ground - she was wearing black sneakers, Eva was wearing yellow high-tops - feeling her own blush spread across her face. Then Eva took her hand, and Kate couldn’t think of a single analogy for how good sitting in the cold on a set of monkey bars and holding a cute girl’s hand felt.

They probably stayed for about twenty minutes before they agreed it was way too cold to stay any longer, so they jumped down and picked up their bikes, sneaking glances at each other and blushing every time they got caught. Kate purposefully led Eva down winding streets, trying to get them lost so that this night could last forever, but Eva admitted she was scared of getting caught and Kate followed her home, more than a bit disappointed.

“Thank you for dragging me out of my room, Kate,” Eva whispered as they slowed to a stop in front of her house.

“‘Course. Nothing better than sneaking out, right?”

“Nothing better,” Eva agreed. She smiled at Kate, almost nervously, and before she could second-guess herself, Kate darted forward, kissed her on the cheek, and then picked her bike up and mounted, waving to Eva as she coasted down the gentle hill and her heart pounding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva hugged her pillow to her chest and stared at the ceiling, waiting for her toes to thaw and reliving the moment Kate had kissed her over and over again in her head.

It wasn’t  _ exactly _ a kiss. It was just on her cheek, and some straight girls out there would definitely claim it was platonic. But Kate wasn’t straight, and neither was Eva.

_ Is this what falling in love feels like? _

Actually, Eva wouldn’t exactly call this love. She’d only known Kate for two weeks. But holy shit.

_ Kate Kate Kate Kate Kate _

She’d made it up to her room without getting caught, which was a small miracle considering how distracted she was, and now she was safe from getting in trouble.

She closed her eyes, intending to think about Kate and everything from that night, but she accidentally fell asleep and was woken up by Lily pounding on her door and yelling, “EVA WAKE UP YOU SAID YOU’D TAKE ME TO ANNE’S TODAY!”

Eva hid her head under her pillow, trying to salvage the last remnants of her dream before Lily inevitably stormed in and dragged her out of bed. She was sure she’d had a good dream, and she was also sure it was about Kate. She vividly remembered the feeling of Kate’s hand in hers, her lips against Eva’s-

“Lily, GET OUT!”

Lily yanked the blankets away, and Eva whined and fumbled for them. “You said you’d drive me to Anne’s party!”

“Make Mom do it, I changed my mind.”

“Mom went for a walk.”

“Ugh…” Eva reluctantly sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“How come you’re wearing your shoes?”

“Uh-”

“You never even get on your bed with them on.” Lily narrowed her eyes. “What did you do?”

“I snuck out last night with Kate,” she admitted. “You’d better not tell Mom.”

Lily thought about it. “I won’t tell Mom  _ if  _ you let me play Cooking Fever on your phone while you get ready.”

“Deal.” They shook on it, and then Eva handed her phone over and shooed her out of her room, already dreading a day running on three and a half hours of sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate literally forgot that Riley’s trial was in a week, she was so happy about last night with Eva.

_ I kissed her. _

_ I kissed Eva. _

A kiss on the cheek, but still, Kate was going to count it.

“I kissed Eva,” she whispered to the mirror as she reached for her toothbrush. She had to keep saying out so she kept believing it was real.

Last night definitely happened. She still had mud on her bedroom carpet from what she’d tracked in, and her clothes were wrinkled from falling asleep in them. And she saw the texts from last night when she checked her phone.

She slid down the railing on the staircase instead of walking and walked into the kitchen with a big smile on her face. “Hey, Mom!”

“Hey, honey. Can you do me a favor?”

She grabbed an apple, bit into it, and gave her mother a look that said “continue?”

“I was supposed to walk Cathy over to a birthday party today, but I have a doctor’s appointment. Think you’d be up to it? It’s only a block and a half.”

Cathy was the neighbor’s kid, who Kate had been babysitting since middle school. “Sure, totally.”

“You don’t have to stay. Just walk her over at 11 and pick her up at 2, okay?”

“Yep, got it.”

“You’re in a good mood today,” her mother commented.

Kate shrugged. “Dunno why. Just woke up happy.”

_ I kissed Eva last night. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok we're making progress! Two weeks left... and one week until Riley's trial..............  
> Also, in case you're wondering: I absolutely squealed and fangirled over these two while writing this. Can't believe I do this shit to myself.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, Cathy's last name is Parr, and yes, she and Lily are attending the birthday party for an Anne Boleyn. What about it?

“Ow, Lily, that was my foot!”

“Sorry!” Lily chirped, looking not at all sorry. She bounced ahead, leaving Eva rubbing her foot where Lily had jumped on it “accidentally”.

As they neared Anne’s house, Eva recognized it as one she used as a landmark every time she picked up Kate - when she neared that house, she turned right - and then she was thinking about how Kate’s house was so close, and Kate probably was, too.

Then, as she waved goodbye to Lily as her sister ran into the house, someone tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped, ready to throw a punch before she realized it was Kate.

“Oh, hey, it’s you. You scared me!”

Kate stuffed her hands in her pockets and shrugged. “Oops. What are you doing here?”

“Dropping off my sister. You?”

“Dropping off my neighbor. Wanna kill some time with me before 2?”

“Of course.” Eva let Kate lead the way, since this was her neighborhood, and as soon as they’d gone four houses down, Kate glanced at her and then reached for her hand.

Eva was sure she was going to pass out any minute now, but she smiled when she caught Kate sneaking looks at her and savored Kate’s laugh every time she told a joke.

They ended up at a cute little cafe, and Kate pulled a twenty out of her phone case and told Eva to “go sit down so I can buy you a gross black coffee.” Eva almost argued, but Kate shooed her away before she could, and she accepted the offered coffee a few minutes later.

“What even is that?” she asked, pointing at Kate’s drink. “Is there even coffee in it?”

“It’s a peppermint mocha, and yes, there’s coffee.” Kate made a face at Eva, then took a sip and grinned. “They’re my favorite part of winter.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You drink black coffee.”

“Because it’s good!”

They stared at each other for a minute, then burst out laughing, accidentally drawing the attention of a few other patrons.

After they finally pulled themselves together, Kate tucked her hair behind her ear and stared into her cup, and Eva caught herself staring and made herself look away.

“Hey, do you maybe want to hang out after school tomorrow?” Kate asked. “We could hang out at my house, or here, and study or-”

“Kate, you’re rambling. And that sounds awesome.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate was a little jealous of how close Eva and her siblings appeared to be. Her brothers had basically become distant family members after leaving for college - frankly, she’d been shocked when Jack came to see her in the hospital - and as close as they might have been when they were little, they barely talked anymore.

But as Eva told her about how Lily had dragged her out of bed and they’d made a bargain to keep Eva’s sneaking out last night a secret, Kate could tell they were far closer than she had ever been with Jack or Derrick. And that did make her a little bit envious.

But she liked seeing the smile on Eva’s face when she talked about her family. She liked hearing the voices she put on when she quoted Lily or Luca or Mallory. She liked wondering about what Eva’s siblings would think of her if they met (she hoped they would all think good things).

They stayed so long at that cafe that they had to sprint to be on time to pick up Cathy and Lily, who didn’t appear to mind anyways. Kate had to stop and sit on the curb for a few minutes because her leg was aching, but Cathy didn’t care and sat next to her, excitedly babbling about the birthday party while Kate tentatively rubbed the area around the bandage, trying to alleviate the pain. Eva glanced back over her shoulder at Kate and smiled, and Kate blushed and smiled back.

When she got home, she sat down on her bed, looked around and decided that if she was going to have Eva in here, she was going to have to tidy up a bit.

And by “a bit” she meant a  _ lot _ .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, yeah, can I come in an hour and a half late tomorrow?”

“ _ Why? _ ”

“I have a study session I really can’t skip.”

“ _ Work the morning shift Saturday and you have a deal. _ ”

Eva thought about it for a moment. Riley’s trial was Saturday, but it didn’t start until 1. “Okay, deal.”

“ _ See you tomorrow, Eva. _ ”

Eva hung up and fell back on her bed, grinning and wondering if tomorrow was a date. She and Kate had held hands all the way to and from the cafe today, and on the monkey bars last night, plus there was the matter of the kiss. She didn’t want to ask, though, so decided to see how this would play out.

_ Kate: hey do we have an alg 2 test tomorrow _

_ Eva: It’s a quiz _

_ Kate: fuck me _

“How do I reply to that?” she whispered.

_ Kate: please say its open note _

_ Eva: Nah _

_ Kate: kill me now _

_ Eva: Mr. Dodds said it’s only worth like twenty points _

_ Kate: thats 4 hws _

_ Kate: i barely get the hw done _

_ Eva: Well damn _

_ Eva: Sucks for you _

_ Kate: excuse you _

_ Kate is typing… _

Eva muffled a laugh as the sarcastic “how dare you” essay appeared on her phone screen. The more she read, the more ridiculous it got, until she was clutching her stomach and laughing hysterically.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So Mattie comes back today, remember?”

“Uh, yeah.” Eva reached for Kate’s hand as she got out of the car - apparently constant hand-holding was a thing now, which Kate could totally vibe with.

“Wait, you haven’t met Mattie!”

“Nope.”

“She’s sweet. I think framing her is always gonna be my number one regret in life.”

“God, I hope she doesn’t hate me.”

“She has no reason to. Probably hates me, though.” Kate pulled her hat off as a security guard gave her a Look™. “We’ll find out later, Cairo wants the whole team to eat lunch together to welcome Mattie back.”

“I feel like that’s a horrible idea.”

“Keeping the team together is a horrible idea. I’m pretty sure we’re only doing it so you can stick around.” Kate let go of Eva’s hand to stuff her beanie in her bag while Eva opened her locker. “You’re one of us now, since you were there. Plus we all want you to fulfill your dreams and be a weather scientist.”

“Meteorologist.”

“That’s what I said.”

“It actually isn’t.”

“I said what it actually is, you just said the name.” Kate poked Eva, who took the opportunity to grab her hand again. “So really, I said it better.”

“Hi, guys!”

Kate suddenly had to fight to keep smiling. “Hey, Annleigh.”

“How was your weekend? I led a sleepover for the church’s youth group!” Annleigh fell into step beside them and spotted their intertwined hands. “Oh, did you go on a date?”

“Annleigh,  _ we’re not dating _ ,” Eva said firmly.

“But-”

“We’re  _ friends _ ,” Kate added.

Annleigh thought for a second, then shrugged. “Ok, if you say so.” Still, she seemed a little awkward and quickly separated from them, even though class didn’t start for twenty minutes and her locker was three down from Kate’s, which was where they were heading. Kate and Eva glanced at each other, shrugged, and kept going, not saying anything since the hallways were getting to be almost too loud to walk and talk at the same time.

Later, as Kate sat in class and daydreamed, she thought about how she’d spent the whole sleepover reminding everyone else - well, mainly Cairo - that she and Chess were just friends, and how now she and Eva were spouting the same shit.

_ ‘Cept I was sure Chess just wanted to be my best friend. _

_ Eva… somehow, I think she wants to be more. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I KNOW Kate and Eva are blind but they're both scared to make the first move okay???????? Also I'm a fan of an ongoing WoF human au where Moonbli legit kissed three times before they started dating, so I'm gonna assume it's possible


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Eva had never met Mattie or even had her described beyond Kate’s vague “she’s sweet” and frankly, she had no idea what to expect. So her expectations weren’t met or not met: they were non-existent.

She and Kate seemed unable to exist in each other’s presence without holding hands (which, to be clear, was  _ not _ a problem for Eva), so that’s how they walked up to the scattered group on the grass outside. It was cold, but private, and Eva preferred it that way; the team members got enough stares on their own, they didn’t need the whole school watching them like a sitcom.

“So you guys are dating now?” Cairo asked through a mouthful of peanut butter sandwich. She wasn’t as put-together as she had been before, but she looked better than she had since the night of Riley’s breakdown.

“We’re not a couple,” Kate and Eva said together.

“You’re  _ literally  _ holding hands right now.”

“Well,” Annleigh said hurriedly, “now that we’re all here, I think it’s time we officially welcome Mattie back!”

There was a chorus of “hi Mattie”s from around the spot they’d claimed, and Eva took the opportunity to study Mattie.

She was fairly short, with thick dark hair and a jumpy, nervous air about her. Eva was reminded of a bunny that had gotten stuck in their window well a few months ago. Lily had wanted to keep it, but their mom said they had to let it go. Mattie looked just as scared, as ready to run or bite at a moment’s notice.

“As team captain-” Cairo started.

“And the one who had the idea,” Kate interrupted through a fake cough. Eva elbowed her.

“I would like to be the first one to apologize, Mattie. We all, except Eva, understand that what we did was horrible and I know we will all regret it for the rest of our lives.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kate added next. “It really was an asshole move of all of us.”

Annleigh apologized next, and suddenly Eva realized she hadn’t seen Reese all day.  _ Where is she? _

“I forgive you guys,” Mattie said in the smallest voice Eva had ever heard. “That night was really hard and you panicked. I still wish Cairo hadn’t made me get drunk, though.”

_ What? _

Eva glanced at Kate, who shrugged and gave her a look like  _ I’ll explain later. _

“Well, it will definitely never happen again,” Cairo promised.

Mattie nodded. “So… it was Riley?”

Thick silence settled over the entire group for a moment.

“Yeah,” Kate said, her voice shaking just a little bit. “It was Riley.”

“But Clark’s death was an accident, right?”

Eva winced, and she could feel Kate tensing up next to her.

“No,” Annleigh said, not even bothering to hide the emotion in her voice. “Reese killed him.”

“ _ Reese? _ ”

“It was an accident,” Eva put in. “I’m Eva, by the way.”

“Mattie. And what do you mean, it was an accident?”

“Reese found Farrah in the bathroom when the light was off,” Cairo explained. “Clark was visiting Annleigh, and when he heard Reese shout, he burst in. Reese thought he was the murderer and hit him with a shower head, and the blunt force did him in.”

Annleigh clenched her jaw but didn’t say anything.

“Eva and I took her to the police station Friday so she could report herself,” Kate added, “but we haven’t heard from her since.”

Another moment of silence while they all thought about that.

“This is fucked up,” Cairo said after a minute. “We’re in high school, we shouldn’t be catching murderers.”

“At least nobody else got stabbed,” Mattie said, trying to be optimistic. “Right?”

Kate winced. “Actually, she got me in the leg when I tried to knock her out. I’m okay, though!” she added at Mattie’s panicked expression. “You saw me walking up, right? I’m all good.”

Mattie hesitantly nodded. “Guess I missed a lot, huh?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hey, do you maybe want to come over to my house today?” Eva asked as they walked from her locker to Kate’s. “It’s not as big and I have two little siblings but-”

“Sure, that sounds fun.” Kate squeezed her hand. “I’ve seen your house from the outside and watched you falling out the window, but I have yet to go in.”

“That was not a  _ fall _ , that was a  _ planned exit. _ ”

“Right, you  _ definitely _ meant to land and knock the wind out of yourself.”

“I did not!”

“Mean to?”

“I didn’t knock the wind out of myself.” Eva shoved her without letting her hand go.

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“ _ Did too. _ ”

“ _ Did not. _ ”

“Did too!”

“ _ Kate. _ ”

“ _ Eva. _ ”

“You are impossible.”

“ _ You’re  _ impossible.”

“Do you want a ride after school?”

Kate didn’t answer.

“Because if you do, you’re going to move on to the next thing.”

“Spoilsport.”

“Did you seriously just say the word ‘spoilsport’?”

“It’s a fun word!” Kate lightly punched Eva’s arm as she reached to open her locker. “I think everybody needs to use it more.”

“Oh my God, you’re so weird.”

Kate dumped her book in her bag and closed her locker. “That’s why you hang out with me. Because I’m weird.”

“Yeah, it is.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva couldn’t help being a bit embarrassed when Kate stepped into her house. It was small and Luca’s toys were scattered everywhere. Nobody else was home - Luca was at daycare, her mother was at work, and Lily was at Anne’s house - so nobody had been around for Eva to ask to tidy up when she invited Kate over.

“I’m, uh, sorry about the mess,” she mumbled, but Kate was smiling when she looked back.

“I like your house. It feels lived-in. It’s nice.” Kate held a hand out. “I take it your brother is messy?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s an understatement.”

“I am, too, so it’s fine. Mom likes to joke that walking across my room is like crossing a minefield.”

“Somehow, I am not surprised.”

“Ouch!” Kate pressed a hand to her chest and stumbled back like she’d been shot. “You’re so cruel, Evaaaaaaa…”

“Get up, we have homework to do.”

“Nooooooooooo…”

Eva put her hands on her hips and stood over Kate, who had sunk to the ground. “C’mon. I gotta study for a test I took today.”

“Actually, same.” Kate let Eva pull her to her feet, but they both misjudged Eva’s distance from the wall and found themselves standing much closer than intended. Eva caught her breath, staring into Kate’s intoxicating eyes again just like Saturday night.

“We- we should get started on homework,” Kate said, swallowing hard.

“Right, yeah. Um, my room’s this way.” Eva led her down the hall, sure that the whole town could hear her heart hammering.

Kate laid on her stomach on Eva’s haphazardly-made bed and pulled out her laptop, while Eva chose to work at the desk. Working on her climatology homework, listening to Kate’s fingers tapping against her keyboard, and nailing every question was so peaceful and Eva wondered if there were ways to make this moment last forever.

“Hey, Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“So you know today, at lunch, Cairo asked if we were dating?”

Eva’s heart leapt into her throat. “Yeah, I remember.”

“You saw Annleigh’s reaction, right?”

“Yeah, of course.” Vaguely disappointed that Kate wasn’t asking her out, she recalled how Annleigh had reacted - quickly changing the subject and looking uncomfortable.

“Like, Cairo seemed chill about it if we were. I think she’s at least going to try to be nicer about us being gay, you know? But Annleigh…”

“That was shitty.” Eva turned around. “Maybe we should talk to her about it.”

“Oh,  _ hell _ no. Annleigh is stubborn as fuck. She won’t budge.”

“I just don’t want her being uncomfortable with me! Kate, this cheer team is the only reason I’m at Giles Corey. I have to at least be able to work with her.”

“I- you’re right. I’ve just… been dealing with her bullshit for years and it  _ sucks _ .”

“Then let’s not talk about her.” Eva gestured to her room as a whole. “Safe space, okay?”

“Safe space,” Kate agreed. “Actually, there’s one more thing.”

“Reese?”

“Yeah. I’m worried about her.”

“I am, too. Maybe we should go to the station at some point?”

“I don’t know. They might not let us see her.” Kate rolled over onto her back. “Ugh, I’m so frustrated. I wish I knew how to fix all these problems.”

“If we don’t hear from her by Wednesday, we go to the station, deal?”

“Deal.”

They shook on it, and Eva felt a bit better knowing they had a plan.

And a bit worse because Kate didn’t bring up the idea of actually dating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where's Reese??? Is she okay??? And why are Kate and Eva constantly dancing around their feelings for each other???


	14. Chapter Fourteen

_ Eva: Reese, are you okay? _

_ Annleigh: Is everything alright? _

_ Kate: please text back were worried _

_ Cairo: Reese, we haven't heard from you and we're getting scared. _

_ Mattie: Reese, please please please respond _

"Has anyone got an answer yet?" Kate asked aloud. Nobody did.

To any onlooker, they appeared to be five teenagers embodying stereotypes and glued to their phones, but the entire team (which, at this point, was tiny) was actually spamming Reese's phone, trying to make sure she was okay.

It was Wednesday, the day Eva and Kate had agreed to check on Reese, and now the entire team was planning to march down to the station. Annleigh was still awkward and in pain, but she admitted that yes, it was an accident and while she was angry with Reese, she didn't want her to be hurt.

When they still hadn’t gotten an answer by the time school ended, everyone piled into Eva’s old car to go to the station. Kate closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat, trying to convince herself that Reese was fine. Normally, the rumble of the engine was always comforting, but in her current already-overwhelmed state, part of her just wanted to get to their destination so that the car could get turned off.

She shrunk behind Eva as they walked in without even meaning to, the night of Chess’s murder fresh in her mind and screaming at her. Everyone else besides Eva looked like they were remembering that night, too - especially Mattie, who looked terrified and ready to run away. But she stayed, which Kate knew Reese would be grateful for.

If they could see her.

Eva ended up being the one to speak to the lady who helped them, and Kate clung to her hand without even meaning to, because she recognized the lady as the one who had held her hand that night.

It turned out Reese had been released on Sunday and was sentenced to 600 hours of community service, which just made everyone even more confused about why she was ignoring their texts.

Cairo said she had a document that had the whole team’s addresses, in case of emergency or cheer team mail, so she pulled it up and directed Eva to Reese’s house. They all sat in the car by the sidewalk for a bit, arguing over who should ring the doorbell, until Kate got fed up and marched across the lawn to the front door. Eva appeared at her side as she rang the bell, and she glanced back at Cairo, Mattie, and Annleigh just as the door opened.

“Oh, hello, ladies!” A kind-looking middle-aged woman answered the door and beamed at them. “Can I help you?”

“Hey,” Cairo said, stepping forward. “We’re looking for Reese? We’re on the cheer team with her and she hasn’t been responding to our texts.”

A spark of recognition flared in the woman’s eyes. “Of course! Come on in.”

They all stood around awkwardly in the living room while the woman - probably Reese’s mom - disappeared down a hallway and returned a few minutes later with Reese.

Her hair was loose around her shoulders and greasy, and her eyes had huge dark circles under them. She looked like she hadn’t slept properly in days - which she probably hadn’t.

“Hey, guys,” she said wearily. “Take a seat.”

“Why haven’t you been responding to our texts?” Mattie asked.

“Oh, hey, Mattie, glad you’re back. Sorry we framed you.”

“I’ve already heard the apologies, Reese, but thank you. And please answer my question.”

Reese moved on to Kate and Eva, still not answering Mattie’s question. “What’s up with you two? You’re basically glued at the hip.” Technically true - they were sitting very,  _ very _ close together on the couch and holding hands again.

“They claim they aren’t dating but none of us believe them,” Cairo answered before either of them could. “Reese, what’s up with  _ you _ ? You don’t answer our texts and won’t tell us why. You didn’t even tell us you came home.”

Reese shrugged. “It’s been a hell of a couple days, ladies. I didn’t want to deal with questions.”

“We get that, but we were worried about you!” Mattie protested. “You could’ve said you were fine but didn’t want to talk, and we would have left you alone, right?”

“Yeah, of course.” Kate leaned forward. “We care about you, Reese. We just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Reese’s eyes welled up with tears. “Thank you, guys. That’s really nice of you. I-I’ll be at the trial Saturday, and I’m coming back to school on Monday, okay?”

The rest of the team didn’t stay much longer. Eva drove Cairo and Annleigh back to school for their cars, Mattie home, and then she and Kate drove around for awhile in silence. Unfortunately, Eva’s car was a stick-shift, so they couldn’t hold hands, but it was nice to be able to sit together and think before Eva dropped her off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ To-Do list: _

_ Meet Mattie: check _

_ Check on Reese: check _

_ Talk to Kate about whatever the hell is going on between us: _

Eva didn’t actually write that down, but she did think it while she worked on her English essay. Mattie was back, Reese was fine, but she and Kate were still complicated. They were holding hands and hanging out all the time now, and Eva seriously wanted to know what was going on with them.

She was fairly sure Kate liked her back - she’d literally kissed her (on the cheek) - but she was scared to say something in case it made everything awkward.

So she bit her tongue and thanked whatever god was out there that at least she and Kate were close friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the days went on, Cairo became more and more visibly frustrated with Kate and Eva. Never one to internalize her feelings, every time she saw them she’d say, “ _ please _ tell me you got your shit together and started dating.” As much as she liked Eva, Kate had to admit, she was also enjoying driving Cairo crazy.

At times she had to double-check and remind herself that they weren’t actually a couple. She’d been texting her cousin and accidentally typed  _ my gf _ , then back-spaced and replaced it with  _ a friend of mine _ . And she’d come  _ this close _ to saying “hey, babe,” to Eva the other day.

They hung out at least twice a week, sometimes at each other’s houses, sometimes at a cafe, sometimes at a park or something like that. Kate, who was sick of this dancing around each other bullshit, was planning to sneak out with her again and officially ask her out on top of the monkey bars, since that was where the whole hand-holding thing started.

The night she was planning on, as she moved her bike to the side yard so she could sneak it out, her phone buzzed and she glanced at it, relieved to find it was Eva so she could remind her to do the same.

_ Eva: Ok idk why I’ve waited this long but fuck it, I have to say it _

_ Eva: I really like you, Kate _

_ Eva: Like, as more than friends _

_ Eva: Can we be a real couple? Please? _

_ Kate is typing… _

_ Eva: Sorry _

_ Kate: first off, don’t be sorry _

_ Kate: actually wait yes _

_ Kate: be very sorry _

_ Kate: i had a PLAN and you ruined it _

_ Kate: i was gonna make you sneak out again tonight and ask you out at the playground _

_ Eva: So, to be clear, we can be dating for real? _

_ Kate: duh _

_ Kate: im still dragging you out tonight _

_ Eva: I’ll go get my bike, then. See you at midnight? _

_ Kate: yeah _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Eva?” asked a soft voice behind her door.

Eva froze in the process of pulling on her shoe.  _ Oh shit oh fuck oh no _

“It’s Lily.”

Eva debated it in her mind for a minute, then opened the door and let Lily in. She was wearing a PJ dress and rubbing her eyes, her hair all mussed up. “Why are you dressed?”

“Can you keep a secret?” Eva sat down on her bed and patted the blanket next to her. “I’m sneaking out again to spend time with Kate.”

“W-why?” Lily asked through a yawn. “You see her during the day.”

“Because it’s fun to sneak out and hang out at nighttime, Lils.”

“Then can I come?” Lily’s eyes started to look more awake. “I’ll go put clothes on!”

“Sorry, Lily, but tonight’s just me and Kate, okay? Maybe next time you can come.”

“But it was just you and Kate last time! I wanna come!”

Eva’s phone buzzed, and she glanced out her window and spotted Kate’s phone screen on the lawn. “Tonight’s very special to me, Lils. I want to be alone with her, but I’ll ask her if you can come next time, okay?”

Lily pouted. “Fine, but you better ask her and make her say yes.”

“I’ll do my best. And don’t tell Mom. Now go back to sleep!” She shooed Lily back into the hallway, got her shoe on, and climbed out the window (carefully, so Kate couldn’t make fun of her), managing to land on her feet.

“Hey, you.” Kate jogged over and grabbed her hands. “You’re late.”

“Lily caught me trying to get out.” Eva pressed her forehead against Kate’s, adrenaline flooding every vein. “She wants to come with next time.”

“As long as she doesn’t get us caught, I could care less.” They stood there for a moment, then Eva stepped away. 

“Let me get my bike so we can get to the park and talk.”

Kate grabbed hers as Eva slowly, carefully unlocked the gate, and as she coasted down the street with her new girlfriend at her side, Eva thought that this was by far the happiest she’d ever been - which was weird, considering how they’d met.

“So.” Kate grabbed her hand the second Eva was secure on top of the monkey bars. “We’re dating now.”

“Yep.”

“We’re girlfriends.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I get to say the words ‘my girlfriend’.”

“As do I.”

“Fuck.” Kate shook her head, grinning. “I’m- wow, I’m really happy.”

“I am, too. You’re awesome, Kate.” Eva squeezed her hand.

“Actually, I’m a mess and you’re too good for me, but I’m your problem now.” Kate leaned her head against Eva’s shoulder.

"Okay, knock it off."

"Make me."

_ Ok this is when you kiss her you fucking idiot. _

"You know, as nice as it is that we're dating now," Kate thought aloud when Eva didn't respond, "I was really enjoying annoying Cairo."

"Do you want to not tell her?"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's face it, we've already been acting like a couple all week. We can just keep denying it."

Kate laughed. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

"Oh, good. Hey, do you need a ride tomorrow? I have to do the morning shift, but I can pick you up."

Kate swallowed hard. “I guess so.” Suddenly, she was tense and her smile had faded.

“Are you okay?”

“They’re going to ask me what happened that night, Eva. I don’t- I’m getting better at thinking about Chess, but I can’t- I don’t know if I can do it.”

“I’ll be right there. You can pretend you’re just talking to me, if you like.”

“Eva…”

“Kate, what’s wrong?”

“Chess and I… we were fighting. She- she had an addiction to her pain meds, the ones for her knee. I-I basically told her I didn’t believe in her anymore, and then I left-” She started to cry, and Eva pulled her into her arms, making sure they both kept their balance. “Chess died thinking I hated her!”

“I’m sure she knew you could never hate her, Kate,” Eva murmured. “She cared about you and you will always care about her.”

“I all but told her I hated her.” Kate’s tears were staining Eva’s shirt, but she didn’t mind. “And I could have stopped Riley, if I just hadn’t left-”

“Kate, you had no way of knowing what would happen.”

“And she didn’t even deserve it. She was kind and good and perfect and Riley killed her for no reason.” Kate was quiet for a moment, still shaking. “She could’ve killed me, you know. She said she wanted to.”

“Kate, tomorrow Riley’s going to get sentenced to prison and then you’ll never see her again. And she’s never going to lay a finger on you, I promise.”

“Don’t promise it. People always break promises to me.”

“Then let me start keeping them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY also Cairo's going to lose it soon at these two. I was hoping to write more, but I had a huge bike ride this morning (22 miles) and I'm fuckin exhausted. Reese is ok, Kateva is dating... next is the trial.


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you guys thought I wouldn't get a chapter out, huh? SIKE!

When she saw Riley, Kate had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep herself from turning and running out of that courtroom. She felt like she was going to be sick, and her leg started to hurt again, worse than it had since she’d been released from the hospital, bad enough that she had to lean on Eva to be able to keep up with the rest of the team. She vividly remembered the way that knife had shone under the flickering lights from the ceiling fan, the feeling of realizing that that was  _ her _ blood dripping onto the carpet.

Cairo looked even worse. That was her best friend there, but how could that be Riley? Riley was cheerful and friendly and so energetic Kate and Chess used to joke that she probably drank at least a dozen expressos every morning. They’d joked that that was why they were going to the sleepover, to find out if she actually did.

They never found out if they were right.

Riley sat stick-straight, staring ahead, and didn’t even glance at the team as they entered the courtroom. Her lawyer sat next to her, reading some papers, probably knowing there was no way Riley could be proven innocent.

Kate took her seat and stared at her knees, resisting the urge to tuck them against her chest and hug herself and stay like that until Riley was gone. Next to her, Eva squeezed her hand. When Kate glanced to the side, she was just as tense and nervous as everyone else. Then Reese reached for her other hand, and she took it, needing the support just as much as Reese did. Somehow, the whole team ended up holding onto each other, even Cairo, as they found themselves in yet another courtroom. This time, though, the real murderer was the defendant and they were going to tell the truth.

Kate, since she was one of Riley’s victims, was called to the stand first. Eva and Reese were both reluctant to let go of her, and she didn’t want to let go of them, but she stood up and limped to the front of the room, her leg still aching.

“Please state your first and last name and your age.”

“Katherine Dalton. I’m sixteen.”

“Miss Dalton, could you please give us your account of what occurred on the night of August 2nd?”

Kate made the mistake of letting her gaze drift by Riley, and her heart almost stopped. Her eyes were piercing and cold, and her stare was calculating and almost snake-like, a far cry from the desperate girl Kate remembered hearing call after Cairo.

“Miss Dalton?”

“Oh- sorry.” Kate took a deep breath - she’d rehearsed this three times to her bathroom mirror and hoped she could get through it okay. “Um, Chess and I- we got to Riley’s house a little before 7 PM. I didn’t want to go, but Chess said I should, and we were arguing about it before Cairo told us to come downstairs. Riley wanted us to all introduce ourselves for Mattie, because she was new, so we did. Then Cairo started Truth or Dare and Annleigh dared Cairo to do the cheer because they were arguing over who should be co-captain. Farrah said she wouldn’t do the cheer if Chess was a base, and accused her of being high at the game where she dropped Farrah and we went viral. I got mad for Chess and shoved Farrah, and Riley told me to take a walk, so I grabbed my bag and ran outside. I was gonna call a cab or even just walk home, but Chess followed me outside and convinced me to stay. But then I- I found the bottle of pills she had been taking for her knee, but she was taking them more than she was supposed to. I told her we could- we’d start over. She was so much better than that.” Fuck, her eyes were starting to sting with tears. “But- but she wouldn’t listen. She said that she wasn’t better than that. So I- I threw the bottle back at her and said, ‘you had one person left who believed in you’ and went back downstairs.” She swiped at her eyes with her hoodie sleeve, scared to look away from her sneakers. “Later, Cairo was teasing me and saying Chess and I were dating because I, uh, I did kind of have feelings for her, and so I got mad again and went to find her so we could leave. I found her on the bench outside. The guy from the ambulance said she was already dead-” She choked on her words and took a second to compose herself. “And then everyone else came out. Riley went to find Reese, Mattie, and Farrah, and then we found Clark and Farrah in the bathroom. Cairo said we should frame Mattie, and then…” She held out her hands helplessly. “And then we did.”

Riley’s lawyer stood up, clearing his throat. “Miss Dalton, you said you were fighting with Francesca all night?”

“I didn’t kill her,” she insisted. “I was angry with her, but I would have  _ never _ hurt her. I swear.”

“And Farrah?”

“I didn’t like Farrah very much, but I wouldn’t have killed her, either.” Kate clenched her jaw, tired of people assuming  _ she _ did it.

“Thank you, Miss Dalton. Have a seat.”

She did, and glared at Cairo as she mouthed  _ Katherine? _

Reese was called up next, and as soon as she stood up Mattie reached for Kate’s hand, which she accepted gratefully. Poor Mattie was shaking like a leaf and looked like she was going to cry any minute now. Kate seriously considered following her up to the stand for moral support.

While Reese gave her account, Eva let go of Kate’s hand to brush a few tears from her eyes. “You did so well,” she whispered. “I’m proud of you. I’m sure Chess is, too.”

Kate didn’t say anything, just managed a smile at her and took her hand again. She glanced at Mattie as Reese finished up what she was saying, and saw her staring at the ground so intensely Kate almost expected to see a hole there. She gave Mattie’s hand a squeeze before letting go for Reese, who sat down looking shaken and worn.

As Eva (the last one to go) finished telling her story from the second sleepover, Kate dared to glance at Riley again, and wondered if she had even moved the entire trial.

She leaned her head against Eva’s shoulder once she sat down, feeling drained and wishing this could be over.

Finally,  _ finally _ , they took a break. Cairo stood off to the side by the courtroom door, giving off “talk to me and I’ll slit your throat” vibes, so naturally she was left alone. Annleigh, Reese, and Mattie sat down on a bench together, not saying anything (Mattie sitting between Annleigh and Reese). Eva pulled Kate behind a corner, out of sight, and then hugged her for a moment while Kate struggled not to cry.

“You did great,” Eva whispered. “You don’t have to say anything more. I promise.”

Kate almost told her not to promise, but didn’t at the last second.

“I didn’t know your full name is Katherine.”

“If you try to call me that, I’m dumping you,” she joked weakly. “Chess tried it once after I decided I wanted to be called Kate, and I didn’t talk to her for three days.”

“Wow, that’s a serious threat.”

“I can’t even begin to imagine what Cairo’s going to do with it.”

“Did she not already know from the first trial?”

“I referred to myself as Kate before I gave my statement. They approached me afterwards to fix it, but nobody found out.” She clutched the front of Eva’s red polo - she hadn’t had time to change out of her work clothes - while she tried to calm down. “She’s not going to walk free, right? I can’t go to school with her again, I can’t.”

“I swear to God, if they let her go, I’m going back to West and dragging you with me.”

“Deal.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The jury has sentenced the defendant, Riley Williams, to life in prison with parole.”

Eva had hoped for Riley to be sentenced without parole, but with it was better than nothing.

_ Life in prison. _

She heard Kate’s little gasp and glanced at her, glad to see she wasn’t crying again.

Neither of them said anything all the way to the car, until they pulled out of the parking lot.

“Can- can you take me to this church? I want to see Chess,” Kate said in a tiny voice.

“Of course. What’s the address?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Um, hey, Chess.” Kate sat down next to the grave, already crying a bit. “It’s been a while, huh? Sorry I haven’t been coming by, it's just… it’s been hard. I just got back from Riley’s trial. She’s been sentenced to life in prison. With parole, but it’s better than nothing, right?” She paused. “I have a girlfriend now. Don’t tell anyone, we’re enjoying watching Cairo lose it. It’s Eva Sanchez, the one Riley was always gushing about because she’s the highest ranked flyer in the state. She’s not the goddess we always thought she was, though. She’s kind of a dork, really. I like her so much.” Kate swallowed hard. “Remember when we were in eighth grade, and we wrote those letters to each other’s future partners? I think I’m going to give the one you wrote to Eva soon. I wonder where the one I wrote is?” She laughed weakly through the tears. “Too bad nobody will ever read it. Shit, I said I wasn’t gonna talk about that, about- about you being gone. It’s kind of hard to ignore, though, huh?” She reached out and touched the gravestone. “I fucking miss you, Chess. I want you to be able to give Eva The Best Friend Talk in person. I want to be able to watch El Dorado and make fun of it. I want to whisper and laugh together in class, I want to bike to your house in the middle of the night and know you’ll be awake, and I just want to see you again.” She swiped at her eyes with her sleeve. “I won’t forget you, Chess. I promise. You’re always going to be the best friend I ever had.”

She stood up, stared for one last second at the gravestone, then limped away, already craving a hug from Eva and maybe a stupid movie with her parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was mostly Kate's POV because I felt like it would be harder for her. Also Chess angst! Story's not done - they still have to tell the team and Annleigh has some growing to do.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is literally just some Chess angst with some added self-indulgent fluff.

“Thank you for driving me.”

“You had to see Chess, right? I would’ve been such an asshole not to bring you here.” Eva reached for Kate’s hand and pressed it to her lips. “Do you want to come over for a bit? If you’d rather just go home I’d understand.”

“Please. I don’t- my parents- they won’t leave me alone.”

“Okay. Let me just text my mom and then we can go, okay?”

“Actually, uh, there’s something I need to get from my house. I still want to hang out with you, but-”

“We’ll stop by, then.” Eva started the car and glanced at Kate with a smile. “I’m proud of you for going up there, you know.”

“Thank you for not leaving,” Kate whispered. “Not at the beginning and not when I cry and not when I can’t stop thinking about Chess.”

“You’re stuck with me-”

“If you call me Katherine, I’m getting out of this car.”

“Damnit, Kate.”

Eva texted her mom while she waited for Kate to run in and grab whatever it was she needed, fully prepared to use every persuasive tool in her arsenal.

_ Eva: Hey, Mom, Kate’s going to come over and hang out after the trial, okay? _

_ Eva: Normally I would ask for permission, but she and I both kind of need this right now. _

_ Eva: So, yeah. _

_ Mom: I would’ve appreciated it if you’d asked for permission, but I understand that neither of you are going to want to be alone right now and so you can tell Kate that she is welcome to stay as long as she needs. _

_ Mom: Also, your godparents are dropping by tonight to check on you. _

_ Eva: Deal. _

Kate tapped on the window and then opened the door, clutching an envelope so hard it wrinkled just a little bit.

“Hey, ready to go?”

“One thing first.” Kate glanced back at her house. “Actually, can you drive over to the park? I don’t want to risk my parents spying on us.”

Eva laughed and started the car. The drive was only about a minute or two long, even though it took at least ten to bike there from Eva’s house.

“So, um, when Chess started high school, I realized she was probably going to have a boyfriend soon,” Kate started, not meeting Eva’s eyes. “So I wrote this letter and told her every time she had a boyfriend, he had to read it and keep it until they broke up. When I started high school, she decided to write one for my future girlfriends, and- and this is it.” Kate held it out. “You’re the first girl I’ve ever actually dated and had a committed relationship with, so I know we’ve barely been together twenty four hours but I want you to have this.”

“It’s- it’s from Chess?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t you want to keep it?”

Kate shook her head. “It’s not for me. It’s for whoever I date.”

Eva leaned over and kissed her cheek, then took the envelope and opened it.

“Full disclosure, I have no idea what she wrote,” Kate said nervously. “So you can’t judge me by anything in that letter.”

“Mm.”

Chess’s handwriting was neat and tidy, which matched what little Eva had heard about her. She found herself tearing up as she read the letter, finally feeling like she knew Chess, as indirectly as she did.

_ Dear whoever Kate managed to date, _

_ Hi, I’m Chess. You probably already know me or know of me, but now I am your girlfriend’s best friend, so it’s time we talked. _

_ First: Kate is fucking incredible and you’d better adore her or I WILL hurt you. She’s my best friend and she deserves someone totally awesome. _

_ Second: pay attention to her and text her first, so that she doesn’t think she’s annoying you in any way. _

_ Third: she will never admit to this, but she likes having her hair played with and stroked. She doesn’t need to be sad for this to happen (although you’d BETTER take care of her when she is), do it all the time because she loves it. _

_ Fourth: Kate is very, very, very soft for long hugs and cuddles. Her ideal hug lasts at least two minutes. Hug and cuddle the shit out of her. _

_ Fifth: She will try to fight everyone who looks at her or you wrong. Don’t let her. She’s not as tough as she pretends to be. _

_ Sixth: Elaborating on that: don’t pressure her to tell you anything, but let her talk if she needs to. She needs someone she can count on. She’s lonely and (as stated above) isn’t as tough as she pretends to be. _

_ Seventh: She’s going to steal your clothes. There’s no stopping this. You two now share a wardrobe. The only thing I can suggest is steal hers right back, because she will absolutely melt if she sees you wearing one of her shirts or hoodies. _

_ Eighth: In case she hasn’t already told you, her full name is Katherine. Do with this what you will. _

_ Ninth: She likes peppermint mochas and pumpkin spice lattes. That is what you will surprise her with when she’s sad. _

_ Tenth: She’s terrified of spiders. I hope you aren’t, because you’re going to be the one who kills them. _

_ Eleventh: If and when she falls in love with you, love her right back. If you break her heart, I’ll break your legs. _

_ I’m assuming you’ve earned my approval now that you’re dating, so since you know the consequences for hurting her, know that I want us to be friends as long as you’re together. I’m sure you’re a cool person, and I can’t wait to get to know you. _

_ Xoxo, _

_ Chess _

“Eva, are you crying?”

“Maybe.”

Kate leaned over and tucked her hair behind her ear. “What- what did she tell you?”

“Um- you’re terrified of spiders-”

“Fucking snitch.”

Eva laughed through her tears. “She told me your full name, which I already knew. That you’ll try to fight anyone who looks at either of us wrong. That I’ve got to text you first and play with your hair and cuddle the shit out of you.” She decided not to tell Kate about the eleventh point, since it was a bit too forward. “And that she’d break my legs if I ever hurt you.”

Now Kate was crying. “I-I wish you got to meet her.”

“I do, too.” Eva looked back down at the letter. “I’m glad she wrote this for you.”

They sat in silence for a minute, clinging to each other’s hands and staring at Chess’s letter until Eva felt like her crying had ceased enough for her to drive.

“Kate?”

“Mm?”

“I promise I’ll do everything I can to live up to Chess’s standards. For both of you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they pulled into Eva’s driveway, Kate was so tired from all the crying that she really just wanted to curl up in Eva’s arms and take a nap, but she was also eager to meet Eva’s mom and siblings, especially Lily, who was kindly keeping Kate and Eva’s sneaking-out-on-Friday-nights secret just that.

Eva’s mom was incredibly nice and welcomed Kate by asking for a hug, which she almost declined before realizing she did, in fact, want a hug and accepted it. Luca, who Eva had mentioned was just over two, wouldn’t look at Kate, which stung even though he was a toddler and seemed really shy. Lily was pretty much the opposite of shy and was all over Kate the second they walked in together, introducing herself excitedly before her mother asked her to calm down.

Overall, it was nice. Kate liked being there from the second she said, “I’m Kate.”

And it got better when Eva shut the door to her room and proceeded to follow Chess’s order to cuddle the shit out of Kate.

She must have fallen asleep at some point, because she woke up to a soft voice saying something she barely registered. She didn’t open her eyes, just listened to the conversation, which she quickly realized was between Eva and her mother.

She heard the door close, then opened her eyes and yawned.

“Oh, you’re up.”

“What time is it?” Kate grabbed Eva’s wrist and looked at her watch before she could answer. “Oh, God, it’s already 5:30? I should get home-”

“You can stay.” Eva almost looked nervous. “I-I want you to stay.”

Jesus fucking Christ, Kate wanted to stay.

“I’m sure you don’t want to stay the night, but maybe for the next few hours?” Eva continued. “Or as long as you want, really. Or I can take you home now, it’s no problem.”

“I want to stay.” Kate could barely hear herself, but Eva heard enough. “Please?”

“Then stay.”


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gonna be real, I didn't think I'd publish today, but I managed it anyways. I put some bonus Annleigh POV at the beginning, because her growth is hard to show from Kate or Eva's perspectives. More pointless fluff and Chess angst, but next chapter we'll hopefully get to more actual stuff.

Annleigh wasn’t stupid, okay?

She knew there was a lot more going on between Kate and Eva than “just friends.” She saw the way they hung on to each other, looked to each other for support.

She didn’t know how to feel about it, though.

Obviously, she knew Kate was gay. She tried not to think about it, but she knew it all the same. She’d known for years now, ever since Kate had put that “Disaster Lesbian” pride sticker on her laptop. It never really clicked before Cairo started making jokes about Kate and Chess, and then it sunk in - Kate liked girls the way Annleigh liked guys.

Kate liked girls. Kate got crushes on girls and kissed girls and slept with girls and someday would marry a girl.

That was a little too much for Annleigh to handle.

She believed she was supposed to love everyone, but she didn’t understand homosexuality. Two positively charged magnets don’t go together, and that was how she saw two girls or two guys in a relationship. 

And the whole point of biology was to multiply, right? Gay couples couldn’t have biological kids.

She didn’t talk to anyone about it, not her parents, not the pastor. Nobody. She kept it all in her head and thought about it. One night, she imagined kissing a faceless girl and just couldn’t do it. She couldn’t imagine it. She wondered if it was just because she couldn’t imagine kissing someone who wasn’t Clark, but no, the faceless guy in her mind was perfectly kissable.

She kept it to herself until Eva showed up and she and Kate got closer every day.

The day after Riley’s trial, after the service, she lingered to wait for the pastor, Reverend Castman. She’d been thinking and thinking about Kate and Eva, how Kate had leaned against Eva and held onto her hand, and how coupley they really did act.

“Father, can I ask a question?”

“Oh, Annleigh! Of course you can. Here, take a seat.”

Annleigh sat next to him in the pew, more nervous than she should have been. “It’s- it’s about these two girls on my cheer team.”

“What about them?”

“They say they’re just friends, but they’re always holding hands and complimenting each other and they just act like a couple and I don’t know what to think. And one of them has a pride sticker on her laptop and the other one wears a rainbow pin.” Annleigh bit her lip, waiting for the response.

“First and foremost, your job as a Christian is to love and accept them. You know this already, of course.” He waited for her nod before continuing. “And if they do decide to tell everyone that they are, in fact, a couple, then you will love and accept them just as much.”

“But what about what the Bible says?”

“The Bible says to love thy neighbor. Love these girls, Annleigh, just as much as you would if they weren’t behaving this way, and support them no matter what. They will need that support, unfortunately. Not all Christians love their neighbors.”

Annleigh thought a lot about what he said. She thought long and hard about it.

She didn’t understand. But she hoped she would one day. For now, she’d love and accept Kate and Eva and accept them for who they were.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate fell back asleep pretty quickly, but Eva stayed awake for a bit, listening to her even breathing and thinking about the trial.

Riley was the one who had gotten her to Giles Corey. Riley was the reason she was attending such a good school, the reason Kate was asleep next to her, the reason she had a team who genuinely didn’t seem to care that she was gay (except Annleigh, but that was a whole other rodeo). But Riley was also the reason Chess and Farrah were gone, the reason all Eva had of her girlfriend’s best friend was a letter.

So, mixed emotions.

But in the end, Eva was glad Riley was locked up, hopefully for good. She would never come near any of the team members ever again and stay out of their lives forever.

Eva’s eyes drifted shut again, and then all of a sudden she was waking up to a tap on her door that resonated through the silence.

She carefully moved Kate’s arm away from her waist and scooched backwards until they weren’t touching anymore, then stood up and opened her bedroom door, remembering right before she opened it that her godparents were supposed to check on her.

“Eva, darling, it’s wonderful to see you,” her godfather said enthusiastically, and she winced at the volume.

“Kate- she’s asleep, can you maybe try to be a bit quieter?” she asked. “And yeah, I’ve missed you guys, too.”

“Eva?” Apparently, Kate wasn’t asleep anymore, unless she was sitting up and rubbing her eyes and calling Eva’s name in her sleep.

“Kate, these are my godparents, Michael and Rose. Guys, this is Kate, my girlfriend.”

Kate froze, then waved hesitantly. “Um, hey.”

She could see the minute they processed that Eva was, in fact, gay, as she constantly reminded them, and decided to shoo them downstairs so this conversation could at least take place on the couch and not in the hallway.

“Before you say anything, Kate and I have only been officially together since yesterday,” Eva said firmly, “and she’s here because the trial was hell for her.”

“What about you, Eva? Are you okay?” Her godmother leaned forward and took her hand.

“I, uh… it’s weird,” she admitted. “Because Riley is the reason I’m at Giles Corey, you know? She’s the whole reason why I met Kate. But she’s also the reason two girls who deserve to be alive aren’t, and she deserves to be locked up. There’s a lot of complicated stuff going on here.” As she finished speaking, she glanced up and saw Kate, hovering nervously on the stairs. She held out a hand, but Kate shook her head, stuffing her hands in her pockets in an attempt to be casual, like she hadn’t been asleep five minutes ago.

“I’m home now, though,” she finished awkwardly. “It’s over.”

She didn’t believe in God, but if He was out there, she was begging Him to make her godparents leave so she could milk every last second with Kate.

Her mom distracted them after a minute, but then Lily pulled the both of them into her room, talking about wanting to show Kate something. Kate went along with it, pretending to be shocked and into Lily’s favorite doll even though she was still yawning, and Eva realized that if she wanted to have Kate over, she was going to have to learn to share.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was almost seven and frankly, Kate was shocked that Eva’s family hadn’t kicked her out yet. She didn’t live here, hadn’t planned to be there beforehand, and had kind of forgotten how to be a good guest after she couldn’t go to Chess’s place anymore, and was sure she was doing everything wrong.

But nobody kicked her out. Nobody cleared their throats while glancing at a clock. Nobody asked her when her parents were picking her up. Lily kept whining about Eva “hogging” her and Luca kept sneaking glances at her from across the room and Ms. Sanchez kept smiling at her and Eva… Eva held her hand and whispered in her ear and basically sent Kate into a never-ending spiral of gay panic.

“I should call my parents,” she mumbled at around seven.

“Kate, honey, you are welcome to stay as long as you want,” Ms. Sanchez promised, which kind of didn’t help. “If you want to stay the night, that’s perfectly fine with me.”

Kate hadn’t had a real sleepover since the time she stayed at Chess’s, four days before the annual GCHS cheer sleepover. She was expecting to feel scared or angry, but she just… wanted it.

She called her mom anyways, and in true Mom™ fashion, she demanded to speak to Eva’s mother. So she handed the phone over and curled up next to Eva on the couch, staring at their intertwined hands and thinking about that goddamn trial again.

Eventually, she was given the all-clear and admitted she wanted to stay. The adrenaline when Eva beamed could have kept her going for weeks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva woke up around midnight to someone crying.

It only took a second to realize it was Kate.

“No- wait- don’t touch her- stop it,” she pleaded in her sleep, and Eva’s stomach twisted.

“Kate, wake up. Kate, come on, it’s okay, you’re okay,  _ wake up _ ,” she repeated, shaking her.

Kate opened her eyes with a gasp of “Chess!” Once she realized it was Eva, where she was, she started crying again, so Eva held her and let her cry, realizing too late she was crying, too.


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am COMMITTED to publishing daily! It's hard sometimes but it's also kind of nice to have something like this to be working on and having a commitment to fulfill.

School on Monday was hell.

Straight-up  _ hell _ .

Kate clung to Eva’s hand until she absolutely had to let go after homeroom, and as soon as Eva disappeared into the flood of students, Kate could  _ feel _ the stares pressing in on all sides. She could almost hear the other kids’ thoughts, thoughts about the trial, about Riley, about the team, about  _ her. _

Suddenly the bracelet on her wrist felt too tight.

She wanted to run to the bathroom and hide again, but she couldn’t be late to class again, so she kept her head down and speed walked through the halls to French.

French was hard enough for Kate on a normal day. She could never remember how to make a verb past tense, and she always ended up picking fights with the teacher about all of the unnecessary gendering. But on days when she was tired and stressed and anxious? She could barely keep up.

Then, in the halls, some dumbass jock wolf-whistled at her. As the only openly gay cheerleader, she was used to being even more oversexualized than the others - once someone had asked to watch her and Chess make out - but it always sucked. Today was even worse, and she almost punched him in the nose before a hand closed around her wrist and dragged her away, to the space under the stairs where couples sometimes made out between classes.

“Reese, what the fuck?” she demanded, yanking her arm back.

Reese crossed her arms. “The last thing this team needs is for you to get in trouble for trying to beat the shit out of him.”

“You heard him, Reese. He deserved it.”

“I know he did, but you can’t just hit him. It’s stupid, but true.”

“But-”

“Kate, you look like shit already. Can you imagine the school’s reaction to you getting in a fight?”

Unfortunately, she could.

“Fuck all of this.” Kate bit her lip and leaned against the wall, hugging herself tightly.

“That very accurately sums all of this up.” Reese stared at her for a minute. “Today’s been super shitty.”

“Oh, God, it’s your first day.”

“Yeah. People don’t know about Clark, but they’re gossiping and making up theories. You’re not the only one who nearly got in a fight today.”

“Maybe we should both just ditch the rest of the day.”

“I have never cut a class, I’m not starting now.”

“You’ve never cut class?” Kate stared at her in disbelief. “Like, ever?”

“You have?”

“I literally ditched last week.”

“Kate!”

“What? It was a shitty day and I didn’t want to go to class, so I didn’t.”

“Oh my God.” Reese shook her head. “I can’t believe you’ve ditched.”

“I can’t believe you haven’t.”

“Okay, come on, we both have to go to class.” Reese nearly grabbed her arm again, but stopped when Kate glared at her.

Before lunch, Kate got yelled at twice for having her hood on, three times for not paying attention, and four times for mouthing off. She also almost punched two other kids who were annoying her, and only didn’t because Annleigh glared at her before she could. And all of this was before lunch.

The team sat outside together again, which was slightly less insufferable because it was less cold. Nobody said anything for at least ten minutes, which was fine, because Kate was starting to get very, very sick of human voices. She was wondering whether she’d be able to convince Eva to skip the rest of the day with her when Cairo spoke up.

“Regionals is this weekend.”

“We haven’t had a single practice as this version of our team,” Annleigh said without looking away from her sandwich.

“We should go watch, though. There’s a small competition in a few weeks, and the principal cornered me after English today and said we have to go.”

“Because we’re definitely going to have a put-together routine by then,” Kate said sarcastically.

“You know what, Kate? You’re right.”

Kate nearly choked and stared at Cairo.

“Wow, that felt weird to say,” she mumbled, then cleared her throat. “We’re going to be a mess and we’ll be lucky to get twelfth place, but hey, at least we’ll be a well-meant mess, right? All we gotta do is make it there.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Eva: Lily wants to know if we’re sneaking out again tonight. _

_ Kate: we always do _

_ Eva: She says she wants a clear yes _

_ Kate: yes _

_ Eva: And she wants to come with us. _

_ Kate: sure, but your figuring out how to sneak her in n out _

_ Eva: You’ll probably have to catch her _

_ Kate: bedrooms being on the second floor is specifically against teens like us _

_ Eva: I agree _

Eva shut her phone off and set it aside so she could brush her teeth. One more day of school and then it would be the weekend.

Tomorrow, the team was going to go watch Regionals, which probably made sneaking out tonight a bad idea, but Kate had already declared that she would just drink lots of coffee and zone out the entire day. Eva secretly had similar plans. So Eva made sure her bike and Lily’s were stashed in the side yard, checked the weather forecast so she could grab the right coats, and told Kate that their plans were still on when she picked her up for school.

She and Kate found a place to park halfway between GCHS and Kate’s house, so they could sit and talk about the things they wouldn’t be able to talk about tonight with Lily around. Things like the gossip floating around the halls, that one football player weirdly fixated on them (the lesbian cheerleader couple-who-isn’t-a-couple-but-actually-is), and how fucked up everything felt. 

“I just want to  _ punch _ something,” Kate complained. “But as soon as I try, I get in trouble.”

“Buy a punching bag,” Eva suggested.

“Believe me, I’d like to, but my parents won’t let me. They’re still in denial that I’m anything other than a ladylike Disney fucking princess.”

“Straight girls like punching things, too.”

“Tell my parents that.” Kate leaned back in her seat and groaned. “I haven’t actually told them yet. About us, I mean. Because I’m sure they’d keep referring to you as my friend and I don’t want to put up with that.”

“I don’t think my godparents really processed that I’m gay until you showed up. I mean, I dated a girl a year or two ago, but she was an asshole and I never brought her home.”

“Wait, really? Okay, so now I can ask this question: if your ex is an asshole, why’d you date her? That’s the question I want to ask everyone with an asshole ex.”

“That is such a Kate question I think I got whiplash.”

“Hey!”

“And your answer is: she was hot and I was a useless baby gay.”

“That’s… I’m not going to respond to that.”

Eventually, Eva had to take Kate home so they could both get homework done without distracting each other, so she dropped her off and then had to rush to finish her History questions before she went to work. By the time she got home, she was really,  _ really _ tired, but if she tried to make excuses, Lily would bite her head off. So she set her alarm for 11:45 and tried to get at least an hour or so of sleep before Kate showed up on her lawn.

Turns out, she didn’t need an alarm, because Lily woke her up by coming in without even knocking on the door. Eva was still convincing her to wear a coat when her phone buzzed.

_ Kate: im here _

_ Eva: Gimme a few minutes, Lily’s being difficult _

_ Kate: ah, its nice being the youngest _

Eva chose not to respond to that. As soon as they compromised - Lily would bring her coat and put it on if it got cold - Eva explained how they were leaving the house.

“But I don’t want to jump out the window!”

“I’ll catch you, Lils, I promise.”

“But what if you don’t?”

“Kate and I will both be down there. One of us will get you, okay?”

“But-”

“Lily, it’s jump out the window or stay home.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But you have to catch me.”

“And you have to promise you won’t scream, okay? If you do, we’re going to get caught.”

“I won’t scream!”

Eva carefully eased herself out of the window and landed in a crouch, mentally patting herself on the back before Kate pulled her to her feet and kissed her cheek.

“Where’s Lily?”

“She made me go first so I could catch her.” Eva turned and looked up at her window, giving Lily the all clear sign. Seconds later, she was stepping back to keep her balance as Lily landed in her arms. Luckily, she hadn’t screamed.

“Hi, Kate!”

“Hey, kiddo.” Kate’s eyes widened in surprise when Lily viciously hugged her. “Woah, hi!”

“I get to come with you!”

“Lily, keep your voice down,” Eva interrupted. “And can you go get your bike?”

“Oh, yeah!”

Kate waited until Lily was unlocking the gate before whispering, “we’re gonna get caught.”

“Yeah, I know.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miraculously, they did not, in fact, get caught.

Lily played on the swings while Kate and Eva climbed to their usual perch on top of the monkey bars and talked, but unfortunately, Lily started whining after just fifteen minutes and they only got her to last another ten.

So they biked back to Eva’s house, Kate more than a little disappointed, and said goodnight.

Since the night was still young, Kate ended up taking the very long way back to her house, not in the least bit tired and thinking about Regionals the next day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is Regionals!


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! My laptop's broken (long story, check my Tumblr (thatboleyngirlreads) if you wanna know what happened) so this'll probably be the last update for a week or two until it's fixed! I'll definitely be reading your comments, but might not reply for a bit! Disclaimer: no idea how cheerleading or Regionals work, so keep that in mind while reading.

“What time did you actually get home last night?”

“Around 1:30, but my house takes forever to sneak into so I didn’t go to bed until 2.”

“Jesus Christ, Kate.”

“What?” Kate took another sip of her coffee. “It was worth it.”

“Cairo’s going to be so pissed. Normally it’d be fine, but we actually have to pay attention today.”

“Why? It's not like we’re going to be able to beat any of these teams.”

“Public appearances, Kate.” Eva stopped at a red light and glanced at Kate. “Even if our team’s reputation is completely fucked up, we have to pretend like we still have at least a little bit of pride.”

“Pride’s for losers. I don’t know why I’m even still on this team.”

“Because you secretly love it but you’re pretending you’re too tough to admit it even though you’re also secretly a softie who likes it when I play with your hair.”

“Shh, don’t expose my secret.” Kate pulled her hair into a ponytail as the car started moving. “How long do we have to stay here?”

“Probably all day.” Eva handed her ID to the security guard.

“Ugh. I’m gonna need so many cuddles.”

“I will be happy to provide them.” Once she’d been cleared as a guest, Eva started searching for a parking lot. “It’ll be fun.”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, whether or not it’s fun won’t change the fact that we have to stay. At least we aren’t competing.”

“Oh my God, what if we were?”

“That would be  _ such _ a shitshow.” Eva found a spot, and Kate raced out of the car to open the door for her. “You’re such a gentlewoman.”

“Oh, I know.” To emphasize her point, Kate kissed Eva’s knuckles.

“Come on, the team’s waiting for us.” Eva put her arm around Kate’s shoulders and gently tugged her closer as they walked over to where Cairo and Annleigh were waiting. Kate noticed Annleigh glance away awkwardly, while Cairo just rolled her eyes and geared up for her daily question.

“Nope,” Eva said before Cairo could barely open her mouth.

“God-fucking-damnit, you two, get over yourselves.”

Kate snickered.

“Where are the others?” Annleigh murmured, glancing at her watch. “It’s almost 7:30.”

Kate shrugged. “They’ll be here.”

“I don’t know when Mattie’s coming, but Reese texted me this morning. She’s got community service all day, she can’t come,” Cairo said, studying her nails. “Speaking of which, I got my letter yesterday. We’re being given 100 hours each. Except Eva, of course.”

“I saw that, but didn’t open it. I was busy.” Annleigh checked her watch again. “Mattie’s about to be late.”

“Give her a few minutes, Annleigh,” Eva said, readjusting her arm around Kate. “She’s never been here before.”

“Neither have I,” Kate muttered. “We had to watch last year but I skipped it.”

“I drove you, being late wasn’t an option.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry, guys!” Mattie called as she ran up. “My mom said she knew where we were going but we got lost- AH!” She tripped and fell on her untied shoelace, and Annleigh stepped forward to help her up.

"You're perfectly on time," Eva assured her.

“Come on, let’s go in so we get decent seats,” Cairo instructed, stuffing her phone back in her pocket. “We’ll be here all day, I at least want to be able to see.”

“Ugh, all day,” Kate grumbled.

“If you fall asleep, Dalton, I’m kicking you off the team.”

“First of all, you can’t do that. Second of all, that’s even more of an incentive to fall asleep.”

“Kate…”

“Sorry, Eva.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kate only didn’t fall asleep because Eva wouldn’t let her lean on her. She whined about it, but Eva didn’t budge.

Seeing West High perform was a little bit bittersweet, but she did notice and was a little bit smug about how their new flyer, Britney, was nowhere near as good as she was and they didn’t do as well as they would’ve if she’d been there. She felt a little bit guilty about how she instinctively let go of Kate when she saw her former teammates, so used to being told that nobody wanted to see anything about her sexuality and that she had to keep it secret or risk being kicked off the team. But then, when she saw the new captain looking her way, she braced herself and put her arm around Kate, staring Lindsey down as if to say " _ I'm gay, and I have a girlfriend and a team that supports us. So fuck you. _ "

Lindsey looked away.

Kate reached for her hand and snuggled as close as she could with the armrests on the stadium seats in the way, oblivious to Eva and Lindsey's staring contest and completely unaware that she was helping Eva’s case - and her confidence, too.

“They’re good,” she commented at a volume that would have been a casual speaking voice in a normal room, but in the loud stadium was a volume Eva could only hear because of how close they were. “They were better when they had you, though.”

“Now you guys are stuck with me.”

“Stuck with you? You’re the best we’ve ever had, Miss Highest-Ranked-Flyer-In-The-State. You’re our saving grace.”

“Aw.” Eva started playing with Kate’s hair with the hand attached to the arm draped over her shoulders. “You know, even if I do miss competing in big competitions like this, I kind of prefer our team, you know? They don’t tell me to shut up and dismiss the fact that I like girls.”

“Eva-”

“Yeah, that happened. Can’t believe I’m telling you. The point is, I wouldn’t trade this team for anything.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

West High didn’t even place without Eva.

Kate couldn’t help feeling a little bit smug about it.

She was smug about walking out with the state’s highest ranked flyer’s arm around her shoulders, about the glares sent her and Eva’s way from the truck with West High written on the side, about the Tigers jacket Cairo was wearing and Eva was associated with.

She didn’t tell Eva, of course, but she did get the sense that she understood and held her a little bit tighter just because of her old teammates’ presence. And she got the sense that Eva was proud of her new school when she grabbed an orange bow from the backseat and put it on her dashboard - but she quickly put it back in the backseat, because Kate was staring at it and thinking about how much it looked like the bow Riley was always wearing, and it was making her stomach churn and her hand clutch her bracelet.

Eva took the really long way back to Kate’s house so they could talk about what they’d seen. Kate had wanted to try a maneuver a red-and-black team had done, but Eva thought that, based on their team’s skill set (or lack of one), that particular maneuver was a bad idea.

Kate tried to get Eva to stay for dinner, but she was too nervous about meeting her parents, so she reluctantly kissed Eva on the cheek and got out of the car, purposefully fumbling her keys to procrastinate on putting them in the lock.

_ Cairo: Don’t forget about practice Monday. _

_ Reese: How was Regionals? _

_ Eva: Saw West High, rubbed my transfer in their faces _

_ Kate: they were shit without her _

_ Annleigh: They weren’t exactly spectacular, but they were decent. _

_ Mattie: I thought they were really good!!! _

_ Cairo: Kate, you think too highly of your girlfriend. _

_ Kate: not my gf and shes good _

_ Kate: just wont admit it _

_ Eva: I don’t need to admit it when you’re always saying it for me _

_ Cairo: Can you two not flirt in the group chat? _

_ Kate: nah _

Eva texted her separately, and Kate hugged a pillow to her chest with her free hand and muffled her smile.

_ Eva: You really thought they sucked without me? _

_ Kate: everything sucks without you _

_ Eva: Why aren’t you this smooth at flirting irl? _

_ Kate: cuz i dont get distracted thru text by how pretty you are _

_ Eva: Aw, babe! _

_ Kate: dont get all fuckin sapphic on me _

_ Kate: wait shit i meant to say sappy _

_ Kate: be as sapphic as you please _

_ Eva: Lmao _

_ Eva: Believe me, I will be. _


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who stole her mom's computer?????? Specifically to publish??????? And hopes she doesn't forget to log out so she doesn't get caught?????

“Welcome back, everyone!” Cairo said, a little more upbeat than she’d been lately. “A little later than we’d planned, but like we said when Mattie got released from juvie-”

“Better her than us!”

The whole team looked back at Reese, who looked embarrassed after her horrible joke.

“Better late than never,” Cairo corrected.

Eva patted Kate’s shoulder and tightened her arm around her as a subtle reminder that fistfights were against many, many rules. Kate squeezed her hand but kept looking at Cairo.

“That said,” Cairo said slowly, “welcome back to the Tigers, Mattie. We are really sorry and we hope that you don’t revenge-kill us all one day!”

“Probably not!” Mattie chirped, then glared at everyone.

Cairo took an unconscious step back. “Now, as your new captain, I don’t really care about the rules. But the school board has asked that we only ever convene in the gym. As in, on school property. All in favor?”

Everyone raised their hands - except Annleigh, who was on her phone. Eva leaned over Kate’s shoulder and called her name.

“Annleigh? Who are you texting during practice?”

Annleigh glanced up. “Dane! We met in grief counseling.” She showed Mattie her phone. “He’s cute, right? And he’s Mormon… but we share a lot of the same core values!”

“Is he into convicted criminals?” Kate asked, and Eva noticed most of the other girls glancing at her arm around her.

“Accessory to the crime isn’t the crime itself,” Annleigh protested.

,“It’s still a crime.”

“Is it, though?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, don’t you guys have community service in an hour?” Eva reminded them, pulling her arm back and reaching for Kate’s bag to drop it by to the wall. Kate glanced away from Annleigh and back at Eva, her incredulous expression turning into a smile.

“Eva’s right,” Cairo agreed. “Let’s try and focus, okay? Now, this year isn’t going to be easy, but the bar has been set  _ really _ low.” She paused for a second. “Reese, didn’t you say you had a new cheer for us?”

“Thank you, Cairo,” Reese said. “So I’ve been working on this one for a while now. It’s kind of complicated-”

Eva listened to Reese explaining the new cheer, her brain already running through how it would work in real life. She hoped they could perfect it in two weeks, before the small, four-school competition Cairo said they had to enter, but then she reminded herself that even if they didn’t get it perfect, they just had to get it okay.

“Sometimes half-assed is better than nothing,” her aunt used to say. Maybe she needed to start applying that to cheer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, team. We’ve worked our asses off, and our routine is still shit, but we’re gonna go out there and at least have something to show, okay?”

Cairo’s pep talk wasn’t super inspiring, but it did kind of fit their whole fucked-up, falling-apart theme going on.

Kate crouched by her bag and pulled her pom poms out to run through those final moves she kept screwing up, and as she did so, Eva tapped her on the shoulder.

“We’ll do great, right?”

“Hell no,” Kate scoffed. “But hey, maybe we’ll have fun.”

“Long shot.”

“Probably won’t happen.”

“It’ll be miserable.”

“Horrible.”

“Awful.”

“Boring.”

“Love the enthusiasm over here, ladies,” Reese commented, grabbing her water bottle. Kate and Eva both laughed.

“It’ll be fun,” Annleigh insisted, joining their conversation. “We’ll have a blast.”

Kate doubted it. Being humiliated in front of four schools didn’t sound fun. But she was also lucky enough to have some friends - or friend-related people - to do this with, and a girlfriend to be the backup flyer for.

She had to set some expectations for herself and her healing process, and they had to be realistic. She knew she was always going to be the kid who cried when her heart broke. But she was starting to feel like she was at least getting closer to who she was supposed to be, and that itself was at least a little bit of a victory, right?

And as she watched Eva pin her orange bow on, she reminded herself that every time she was scared she wouldn’t make it through, she found the good things. Spur of the moment, right by everyone else, she grabbed Eva’s hand in both of hers and kissed the back of it, so grateful to have her that she didn’t care if anyone else saw, even if Cairo threw her hands in the air about it.

Making Eva smile like that was worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eva had been in a lot of competitions with West High. She’d been on their team for two and a half years. But none had been as goddamn humiliating as this one.

They were a mess. Mattie tripped over her own feet twice, Kate almost stepped right instead of left, and while she was in the air, there was a moment where Eva was scared they wouldn’t catch her. But they did.

None of the judges looked impressed. Well, they were smiling when Eva fulfilled her role as flyer, but otherwise, they looked bored and even a little disgusted. One yawned, and Eva almost caught another on her phone. She didn’t  _ really _ care - this was a small competition and most of them were PTA parents - but she was used to wowing judges with her skills.

Then she remembered what she’d said to Kate on the monkey bars that first night, and while the memory did make her miss a step, she stopped caring what the judges thought.

Even though they got two fours, a five, a three, and a two.

The team left the small gymnasium in a huddled group, smiling despite their score, and into the room set aside for Giles Corey.

“We fucking did it!” Cairo crowed. “We competed and no one got hurt! We were even mostly together!”

All six of them started cheering and jumping around, and then Kate was there at Eva’s side, hugging her and laughing in her ear.

And then she pulled back from the hug a bit, and stared Eva in the eyes-

-and kissed her.


	21. Chapter Twenty One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought about waiting a couple hours before posting this to see your reactions to the kiss, but nah

Kate’s first and only kiss was with Chess when they were seven and eight - just because they wanted to know what it felt like - so when she kissed Eva, all she could do was pray that she was doing this right.

It definitely felt good. It felt warm and soft and holy shit, this was her first  _ real _ kiss.

And Eva was definitely kissing back.

_ I’m kissing Eva. _

_ Eva’s kissing me. _

It didn’t last very long, maybe a few seconds, five or six at most. And it also was in front of the rest of the team - including Annleigh - which was not a factor she had considered during her split-second decision.

She took a moment to open her eyes after Eva broke the kiss, both because she was a little in shock that that had just happened, and because she was scared to see the rest of the team’s reactions. The room had gone deadly silent, and when she dared to look at the other girls, she was definitely scared.

But Mattie was grinning, and Reese was, too, and Cairo was fighting a smile and Annleigh-

Annleigh looked thoughtful for a minute, then smiled a real smile and gave them a thumbs-up.

And all of Kate’s worries flew out the window.

“If you two fuckers are about to tell me that you’re just friends, I’m disbanding the Tigers,” Cairo said, breaking the silence and the tension.

“We, uh, we’ve been dating for three weeks,” Eva admitted.

“Oh, you assholes,” Cairo complained, but she was smiling freely now. And Mattie was shaking her pom poms again, and then the celebration of their last-place loss was back in motion.

And Kate had just kissed Eva.

For real.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Kate: ik its saturday and not friday but i wanna sneak out tonight _

_ Eva: Oh thank God _

_ Eva: I was wondering how to tell you that I want to sneak out, too _

_ Kate: im getting you at 11 instead of midnight cuz i wanna see you sooner _

_ Eva: Awesome _

When she’d gotten home, Eva had screamed into her pillow for a solid minute.

Her mom and siblings probably thought it was because the team had done so badly, but it was actually because Kate had kissed her  _ twice _ \- for the first time after they went back to their assigned classroom, and for the second time when Eva had dropped her off.

She knew what it felt like to kiss Kate now. She knew what it felt like to have casual goodbye kisses and victory kisses.

And then just thinking about it made her scream into her pillow again.

She didn’t sleep at all before 11:30. In fact, she was already waiting on the lawn when Kate rode up on her bike, too excited to wait for her in her room.

Kate dropped her bike on the grass and nearly ran to Eva, who caught her and then kissed her, her heart beating out of her chest.

“We probably should have at least said hi before jumping straight to the kissing,” Kate whispered when she pulled away.

“I have no problem with that order of greetings,” Eva informed her. “None whatsoever.”

“Great, because neither do I.” And then Kate kissed her again.

“We should probably go before my neighbors call the cops,” Eva murmured.

“Right, yes, probably.” Kate stepped back, reluctantly letting go of Eva’s hands, and went back for her bike while Eva carefully snuck hers out from the side yard. They rode all the way to the park and got all the way on top of the jungle gym before kissing again, careful not to lose their balance as they did so.

“Before I say anything else, I need to tell you that I went and saw Chess today,” Kate said after a minute.

“You did?”

“Yeah. After you dropped me off. I almost went up to my room, then started thinking about her and wanted to tell her all about today, so I asked my dad to drive me.” Kate chewed her lip. “I told her that we competed, and that we lost, and that I finally got my shit together enough to kiss you. I told her that I missed her and wanted her there today. But I also told her that I think I’m finally happy, now that it’s all over, or at least almost completely happy.”

“It’s all over,” Eva repeated, settling her arm over Kate’s shoulders. “We made it past the hard stuff.”

“We’re finally in the clear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Low-key proud of that last line, it's one of the only things about this fic I knew I wanted to do from the start


	22. Epilogue

“Cairo thinks I should run for team captain.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake - I have  _ got _ to stop agreeing with Cairo. But yeah, I agree. You should.” Kate stole Eva’s eraser. “You’d be good at it. And maybe next year, there’d be more of us on the team than us, Annleigh, and Mattie. Plus, then you’d beat Annleigh and we wouldn’t have to do Bible study during every practice.”

"She wouldn't actually make us."

"She might."

"You really think I should run?"

"Hell yeah." Kate leaned down and rummaged through her bag for her notebook, then glanced up at Eva. "You already have captain experience."

"I was a shitty captain at West, though. My whole team still just told me to shut up and cheer, to not call attention to myself or my sexuality." Eva stole her eraser back, right before Kate reached for it.

"Yeah, well, for starters, now you have a girlfriend who adores you and refuses to shut up about it, plus friends who will stick up for you. Mattie's small, but she would absolutely fight a bitch for you. Not us, though." Kate shrugged. “We did frame her for murder.”

“I don’t actually think I should condone that.”

“I’ll condone it for you.”

“How sweet.” Eva stared down her math homework, trying to decide if it was worth doing right now. “Would anyone vote for me?”

“Oh, yeah. Highest ranked flyer in the state? Plus, Annleigh would make the whole crowd pray at games. Hey, how do you spell belligerent?”

When they walked out of the cafe about an hour later, Eva was still thinking about it. The idea of being the murder squad’s captain probably wouldn’t have been one she liked at the beginning of the semester, but now, she could kind of see it.

“I think I’m gonna run for captain,” she told Kate as she unlocked the car.

“Cool.” Kate ducked out from under her arm and opened her door.

“You’ve got to help me out, though.”

“You really want  _ my _ help?”

“Yes! This is your school, plus I can veto any actually terrible ideas.”

“So all of my ideas.”

“Katie…”

“I hate it when you call me that.”

“No, you don’t.”

Kate whispered something that sounded suspiciously like “No, I don’t.”

Eva leaned over and kissed her. “So you’ll help me?”

“You won’t need my help. But yeah, I will.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_ Eva: You’re still coming to tryouts tomorrow, right? _

_ Kate: ye _

_ Eva: Can you please wear your uniform? _

_ Kate: whyy _

_ Eva: Because you're a cheerleader, Katie _

_ Kate: you gotta stop putting katie in writing before cairo finds out about it _

_ Kate: what if you accidentally called me that in the gc _

_ Eva: But I won’t _

_ Eva: And wear your cheer uniform _

_ Kate: fine _

_ Eva: Thank you _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, so for the freshmen, Justine was really good.”

Kate leaned her head back against the wall. “So was Loren.”

“Yeah, but we already have a flyer and a backup flyer, and I think I want that sophomore, Clara, as the third one.”

“Ok, so we want Clara, Justine, Mackenzie, and Laura. Who else?”

“Rose?”

“She was annoying, though.”

“But she was good.”

“And annoying.”

“Katie.”

“Hey, I’m not even technically allowed to be helping you, so you might as well break the rule all the way.”

“We’re taking Rose. End of story.”

“Ugh, fine.” Kate took Eva’s clipboard and pencil from her, set them aside, and weaseled into her arms. “So that’s who we want?”

“Our team’s only nine girls.”

“Last year it was six. This is better than it was.”

“I’ll email them, then.”

“So we’re done debating this?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good.” Kate kissed her, but Eva pulled away after a few seconds. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s one more thing I have to decide on as captain.” Suddenly, Eva couldn’t meet her eyes. “The annual sleepover.”

“Oh.” Kate sat back and thought for a minute.

“It’s tradition,” Eva continued, “but is it in bad taste after last year? And would anyone come?” When Kate didn’t answer, she buried her face in her hands. “Kate, maybe this was a bad idea.”

“Maybe just try to have a normal sleepover,” Kate said softly. “Don’t try to turn it into practice, don’t try to make everyone listen. Just play a movie or something.”

“You think I should do it?”

“If anyone can hold it together, you can.”

“Katie…”

“It’ll be okay. If worst comes to worst, then just send everyone home.” She leaned her head against Eva’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.”

“You think we should do it?”

“Yeah. I do.” Kate grabbed Eva’s hand. “Eva?”

“Yeah?”

“I think I might love you a little bit.”

“Y-you do?”

“A little.” Oh,  _ shit _ , Kate was bright red.

“Good, because Katie, I think I love you a little bit, too.”

Nothing too big happened after Eva said that. They both just sat there next to Kate’s bedroom wall and thought about that for a minute.

“So. Um. The sleepover’s on?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Holy shit.” Eva shook her head. “God, can my house even fit nine teenage girls?”

“We could do it in my basement,” Kate suggested. “You and I have hung out there a bunch of times.”

“No murder basement this time, right?”

“Right.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Eva got home that night, she pulled out the little checklist she’d made from the eleven points in Chess’s letter and, with a bit of pride, checked off the final point, number eleven.

_ Eleven: When Kate loves me, love her back. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy fucking shit, guys, we made it!! This fic is officially completed!!!!! Thank you so, so much to everyone who read this fic and left kudos and commented - you have no idea how much that means to me. Love you all!


End file.
